4:00 a.m.
Charley, my son’s crippled, superannuated dog who is staying here while his human bucket(-list)s around the country with his terminally ill buddy, is up and stumbling around.
His nest has been in the family room, which is a sunken room (very stylish when this house was built) down two steps. Problem is, he can’t negotiate even two steps.
He woke up barking, rousted me out of bed about 20 minutes ago. Needed to go out, apparently.
This entails my having to haul him up off the floor, because he can no longer stand up by himself.
Understand: he weighs 80 pounds.
Poor old fella!
Now he was stuck on the floor. He couldn’t get himself upright.
I began to think I was going to have to call the fire department by way of getting some strong men over here.
FINALLY he managed to get enough traction to stand up.
Out into the backyard.
… ohhhh gawd, what am i gunna do if he gets stuck out there?
… ohhhh gawd, what if a coyote comes over that wall?
… ohhhh gawd, how’m i gunna get enough water to him and, if he can’t stand up, into him to keep him alive until I can get someone over here to help?
Back into the house. Back on the slippery tile floors.
Can’t let him go back into the family room…I’ll never get him outta there.
Grab the dining-room chairs, tip them on their sides, and barricade the ledge between the family room and the dining room/kitchen area.
Holeeee shee-ut!
Move his stuff into the dining room.
Now he’s in here (so am I, tapping away on the computer) and laying on his bed but partly off the bed…yeah, the part that presumably hurts is laying on the hard tile floor… I’m so upset I can’t even think about going back to sleep.
All of this drama in about 25 minutes…wheee!
This is what happens when you outlive your life.
Say a prayer, my friends:
God, please let me go
When it’s time for me to go…
My great-grandmother and her daughter, my great-aunt, each lived far beyond their time. Gree — great-grandmother — was well into her 90s when she passed…in the night after she had prepared a Christmas feast for 15 people and then cleaned up after it and mopped the kitchen floor. Her daughter Gertrude, who held onto her job as executive secretary to the president of a large international bank in San Francisco until they had to order her to retire, was similarly superannuated when she died. Around a hundred years old…her son having to take care of her for several years before the end.
Understand: they were Christian Scientists. They never, ever saw a doctor!
My mother smoked herself to death. Murdered by the tobacco companies. No telling how long she would have lived if it hadn’t been for the profit-making cancer sticks. She turned 65 on the day she died.
Ohh my gawd. Now Charley is back up. He wants to get back into the sunken family room, whence he can’t get out…. Now he’s standing there, panting miserably. It’s 4:30 a.m. sharp. And…he’s headed for the back door, meaning ANOTHER wrestling match to get him back in the house.
***
Back into the house HUFFA HUFFA HUFFA HUFFA steam-engine serenade.
The switch to the light in the side yard is busted. I can’t turn the goddamn light off.
Guess that’s better than not being able to turn it on. But now I’ll have to shell out another $75 or $100 (plus parts) to get the electrician over here to fix it.
***
Finally ensconced back on his bed.
Human stumbles toward her bed.
Ruby, who has been cowering under the toilet, emerges from her hideaway.
{sigh} Now it’s quarter to five. Wonder if I could get another half-hour of sleep in?
oh HELL!
I hear his claws clicking on the tile out there. He must be up again.
Welp. I guess that’s the end of sleeping tonight. Good thing I crashed in exhaustion around 8 or 9 last night….
****
Now he’s ensconced on his bed back here next to my bed.
When he breathes, he goes HUFFA PUFFA PUFFA HUFFA, a lovely lullaby.
ohhhhhh shit!!!!
He’s just settled down and now he’s up again HUFFA PUFFA PUFFA HUFFA…. Circle around circle around circle around doggy-dance…now he’s back down on his bed. Will he PUHLEEZE settle down enough for me to get another 20 minutes of z’s in?
Poor beast…
Settle down? Not a chance in Hell!
Up. Traipse up the hall into the kitchen. Guzzle water. Stumble around stumble around stumble around stumble around. Decide to go back to nest in living room.
Human loses patience.
Dog ensconced in living-room nest. Lights out.