A week ago, Auntie Moira, 3 other humans – including my mom, of course – went the block and a half to the hospital, because Moira had a craving for an O Henry bar!! We made quite a procession b oth ways, and the woman in the kiosk, that we filled up when we all went in there, was nice too. Nobody looks askance at us when I go into the hospital or the hospice. It’s odd, to me, that there are so many other places where dogs aren’t allowed to visit. Not just stores like the Safeway and Shoppers’ Drug Mart, but – get this? – places like Ikea!! Mummy snuck me in once, and we got thrown out, when she opened the dog carrier bag to see if I was OK. Mummy asked the policewoman why, and she said, because there’s food in this store!! Mummy was, like, what??? The restaurant, which is totally separate from the furniture displays, wasn’t even on the same floor!
Of course, even the hospice has food in the place!! There is a kitchen with a chef, who Moira says is a really good cook!! Apart from good meals, he also makes home-made chocolate chip cookies and leaves them out on a shelf for anyone who wants one. There is also a nice little kitchenette place near where the cookies are, where mummy gets me ice water and refills Auntie M’s water jug. She was told last night, that patients can have food brought in from elsewhere and kept in the fridge. And if dogs are unsanitary, why did the staff at the hospital ASK Mummy to get me from the car and bring me up to Auntie Moira’s room, when she was there? Dumb de dum dum, I say!!
While we were visiting Auntie, Cecilia spent the time trying to get Moira’s new iPad, that her son got her, to go online. She didn’t succeed. Moira and Mummy just blathered at each other. Moira came across a picture of a “blonde” Standard Poodle and was impressed. She doesn’t like it when Tony-the-nurse, who was rude to Mummy a few weeks ago, visits. Moira says Tony has done a lot of great things for her, but she has such a strong – Mummy calls it “overbearing”; others might call it “in your face” – personality, that Moira just gets exhausted and wishes she would leave. We don’t know how sick people manage to keep people they don’t like as much as others from either visiting or staying too long.
Mummy doesn’t like Tony, though. Tony was very rude and overbearing with her a few weeks ago and never apologised. BUT, Mummy says she has forgiven Tony. I didn’t know what that meant, but Mummy explained it to me. She realises, now, that Tony must have some “issues” that make her want to be in charge and get all the kudos for the things she does. WE don’t know WHY Tony is the way she is, but we do know that there is some reason... So we have to understand that and make allowances for her.
But – says Mummy – that doesn’t mean we have to like having her around! We don’t have to be friends with everyone, but we still need to treat them with respect and not make scenes, either. We are supposed to treat everyone with respect, whether we really do respect them, or not. And we should be able to expect the same in return. That doesn’t mean we need to point that out to someone who is disrespectful, although we can, if we think saying something will fit the parameters of what is “helpful, kind and healing”. Otherwise, we should just keep our mouths shut and – maybe – walk away. As long as we aren't seeing an injustice being done. In that case, we should intervene or call someone who can help.
But, I didn’t know all that last night, when the night caregiver came to empty Auntie’s “bag”. I saw a stranger standing in Moira’s doorway, holding a tall pitcher about a half hour before bed-time. I didn’t think she should be standing there – she was giving off nervous, embarrassed energy – so I growled at her, to get lost. Mummy told me that was inappropriate and wee needed to let the woman come in and do her job. Besides, the woman wanted to make sure Moira wouldn’t be embarrassed. None of us were, so the woman went ahead.... with my supervision. I made sure to sniff around before and after and watch very closely what the woman was doing. It seemed very odd to me.
Most of the time, though, I was out patrolling the hallway. All the staff seem to know my name and make an effort to greet me and rumple my hair. I would really like to visit some of the other patients, but if they are alone, they are usually asleep.
By the way, we were both encouraged to see that Auntie Moira could sit up more easily than last time we had to help her do that. Also she was able to use her hand to pick things up, and it had been just about dead - no feeling in it at all - for a month. And, when we got to the hospice, Auntie was in a reclining chair, like what men watch TV on, fooling with her iPhone, and not sleeping! She was even awake later than she had been at home for the last 6-8 months!
Mummy thinks that, you never know! We can pray, and Moira might actually get healed. Another of my Aunties, Auntie Debby, who is also a nurse as well as a churchgoing Christian, says it's too late for Auntie Moira to be miraculously healed, but Mummy doesn't agree. God can do whatever He wants, when He wants! And maybe He will heal Moira and maybe He won't, but we can still pray!
There are quite a few new dogs in the neighbourhood now. Some new people moved into our apartment building and brought their dogs along with them. I just love meeting new dogs! We met lots more when we walked to the shopping area just west of here. I’ve noticed that all the human parents have to stop and talk, but they never smell each other. Some of the dogs’ owners get all embarrassed when us dogs sniff each other, as if it was something wrong! Like, dirty!! Yet humans put their paws on each other a lot, which we never do!!
Anyway, tonight we met a 10 week old puppy, who is a Puggle, the owners said. Mummy thought it was a baby English Mastiff, but it – he – was way too small!! He had the buffy coat, black face and sad eyes of a Beagle, but his tail was curled differently. The puppy’s dad was thrilled that Mummy thought Kramer – for that is his name – looked like a Mastiff, because that’s exactly why the man got Kramer!! He wanted a Mastiff but isn’t allowed a dog over 30 lb. I liked him OK. He was nice and quiet.
Mummy’s sister, Heather, is coming over tomorrow to do something with pictures Mummy took last summer at the golf tournament that Heather set up to raise money to help blind golfers be able to keep playing their favourite sport. It was good fun last year, but there weren’t very many people, so the tournament didn’t make money. Heather decided to do it in the first place, because her darling spouse, Bill, who died of cancer a year and a half ago, was a blind golfer. Bill, like other blind golfers, had played before he was blinded. We were told that it’s almost impossible for someone blind who has never played sighted golf to learn to play, but there are lots of golfers, who were blinded as adults and now cannot make enough money to keep playing.... so Heather wants to help make that possible as well as do something she knows Bill would really like. We are going to do it again this year and hope that more people will come.
That made Mummy think about what we can do to make Auntie Moira feel good. Maybe we should start a foundation or find a way to encourage people to make donations for brain cancer research, especially at our local hospital, which already has a general cancer research foundation, but not one dedicated to glioblastomas. She will probably ask Heather about how to do that, tomorrow.
