WyzWmn's World©

I was up Island visiting friends in Port Alberni…left there to drive home around 2:15 – it was hawt – damn hawt….and by the time I get all the way around the peninsula it’s about a 3 hr trip

Pixie was in the passenger seat in a carry bag as opposed to her dog crate…said bag has mesh sides and I thought it would be cooler than the crate…about an hour down the road I realize she’s in full sun and cos I’ve not been paying attention – I don’t know for how long…so I pull off at a roadside rest area just past the Nanoose turn off to rearrange the car to get her outta the sun

I let her outta the carry bag and she couldn’t stand up…she kept falling over and was lethargic and her eyes were dull…at first I was afraid that she’d eaten something poisonous in the brush around my friend’s home in Port Alberni…and then I though “heat stroke”…but the air conditioner was on in the car? Still she only weights 3.5lbs so maybe heat stroke?

I tried but couldn’t get her to drink water and every time I set her down she’d fall forward like “falling in yer pudding” onto the tip of her nose as opposed to laying down…she couldn’t hold her own weight up standing or sitting

I did what most people do…I panicked and wept a bit and tried to find a veterinarian in Naniamo on Sunday….apparently I was nuts.

I went to PetSmart – a huge pet chain to ask them and they gave me lectures on where not to take her “cos they’ll kill yer doggie”…..but weren’t so much help in the where to take her dept and in the meantime I’m holding a rag doll that I can’t even feel breathing…

So I pulled into a mall parking lot and I started calling people I know that live in Naniamo – but it must have been the weather cos they where away er at the beach er sommat.

Once I had a bit of another bit of a boo hoo I ended up calling my friend Arlene who lives in the interior and works in Boston Terrier rescue and got her to look up symptoms of heat stroke in dogs on the WWW and read them to me – from 9 hours away in Lumby– and she looked up the numbers for vet’s in Nanaimo …none of whom returned my call when paged…

I gave up on Nanaimo and I called my vet in Victoria and they gave me yet another number of a vet in Naniamo…who also didn’t return my page…

I called Arlene back and she’d been reading more on the web and she suggested that I bathe Pixie in tepid water… (no small feat when yer in a parking lot in a town 2 hours away from home)…

So I put her inside my shirt and walked straight into a Tim Horton’s and into the ladies room. I filled the sink full of tepid water and put Pixie in it…she was so out of it she didn’t even realize she was wet at first…

It took about 20 minutes and she finally started to come around…so I wrapped her up in paper towel and carried her out to the car…I wet a bandana with drinking water and laid it on her belly and chest…with her laying on her back in my arm and drove from Nanaimo to Cassidy where I stopped at a rest area and put her in the sink again…this time she was awake and cranky…

I was never so happy to see a little dog cranky.

I drove the rest of the way home and got to my vet’s office at 7:10 where they examined her and said she was good to go now…at which point “the little darling” got up and wandered over to the treat bowl for a snack.

My vet rocks…they triaged her after 7pm and didn’t charge me a cent. And Pixie is good as new….so – my friend Arlene also rocks…not only for saving Pixie but for calming me down about it too…

And going forward…Pixie will be in the back seat in the middle where the sun can’t reach her – and I’ll buy a pair of those kiddie shades you see parents using on their windows to protect their babies from the sun…she’ll be in the hard crate and if I have to I’ll even buy a cooling pad for her crate…I am gonna do my best to never get a scare like that again.

Now Pixie’s asleep on the couch – and I’m going to go hide in my bedroom closet and suck my thumb.

one thing
I am full on certain of
is that I am not
have never been
nor ever will be

a wordsmith – a writer

a couple of friends of mine
do major crossword puzzles daily
me?
not so much
my brain doesn’t work like that

my boss quotes poetry
and literature (lit er at chewer – don’t you know?)
at the drop of a hat
me?
not so much
I fall asleep…

me?
I have the knack
for turning a phrase
cussing like a muleskinner
and putting a funny or ironic spin
on just about anything…

so this I do know
I know
that what I can do
is tell a story

I get lots of pokes from people
about not writing things
on this blog much

well
part of that
is the audience

these people
that pester me to write
are also the people
that can’t or won’t handle the truth

these people that pester me
to carry on in here
really want me to take shots
at people
under the guise of friendships
that I no longer have or hold dear

I’ve learned
that I have to guard
what I want to share
these days
er I end up
knee deep
in bull shit
that I want
no part of

I’m a Lion
hear me roar
means I have to tell it
like I see it
but very few people
can handle the cold truth
the calling of the spade
as it were…

so I’ve made it a practice
to reign in my thoughts
and not get to much of a point
of late

that being said…
I’m frustrating myself.

mostly
I’ve convinced myself
that I’m boring
and who the hell would want to read
this clabber
anyway…

still
I know I can turn a phrase
when I have a story to tell

it’s more visual to say
“Pixie yakked on me”
than to say “my dog is ill”

it’s more visual to say
“the traffic coming home today today was
something like a slow trip to hell”
than to say
“it took me an hour longer than expected
to get home”

I sometimes wonder
what it is
that’s lacking in my brain
that won’t allow me to put together
the word with the idea presented
in a crossword puzzle
yet allows me to see a word jumble
most times
right outta the gate

what it is about my brain
that won’t allow me
to stay awake
long enough
to read anything
that might be of educational value

sometimes it bothers me
but having a clearer understanding
of my place in the world of storytellers
of my lot
of my craft…
makes me understand
that not everything
is story worthy

and sometimes
even when it is story worthy
it’s easier
to hold back
than to ruffle feathers…
no matter the strength of my convictions