Operation day....maybe therapy will help remove the memories!

OH... have we got a story about today! We are NOT bored ... but wouldn't mind it for a while. This story is fairly long but hey, it's my blog so just skip over it if you don't have time. :P

Today Beckett started off his day without fan fair and even came soooo near to jumping into the car on his own, but at the last couple of steps backed out. I was impressed that he didn't put the brakes on when I opened the back door of the car! The ride to the vet's was also fairly quiet, as was the entry into the clinic. We got the paperwork in order and he even went with the assistant without any issues. Both Darrin and I were impressed and proud of the change in this little guy from even a week ago when he was last at the vet's. He didn't insist on staying in the open doorway, didn't growl, nor did he soil anywhere... the perfect patient... on the way in.

Then came the afternoon. I'd be lying if I told you that neither Darrin nor I worried about the possibility of something going wrong during the surgery, and I for one was silently celebrating when Darrin told me Beckett was out of the operation and was okay. He was described as being upset to us. Well, I would be too if I awoke and found vital parts missing!

Darrin had kept the car in order to pick Beckett up at the end of the day. In the mean time a storm had developed and due to the high winds and blowing snow, flights were delayed and before Darrin could pick Beckett up, he was asked to pick up his sister at the airport rather than have their parents drive into town during the foul weather. This meant Darrin was 'Mr Taxi Driver' for the afternoon. He managed to get Deb home and then get back into the vet's. Apparently Beckett was awake and was NOT happy. His anguish showed itself as diarrhea and apparently, he show a lot of anguish! I was just fine with him getting it all out at the vet's. LOL I presumed the combination of the medication and the anxiety, plus having not eaten anything for 24 hours, created the perfect storm.

At almost 5 pm I had a call from Darrin saying he was between the Kent Hardware store and the VanKampen's Greenhouse and that I needed to hurry. Seeing that Beckett was probably a hand full by then I rushed to meet Darrin out in front of my office building as he sped by on the way to the apartment. I quickly did my end of day check, kicked the last person out of the office and armed the system before launching myself down the three stories of stairs to the front door. I've been known to keep Darrin waiting out front a few times but figured this time the dog and his diarrhea put the pressure on me to not delay getting out there. I didn't enjoy the thought of clean-up.

I was out front in 4 minutes and waiting for Darrin and thought, "well, I can just walk home and meet them there rather than him swinging by my work" so I called his cell. It was then that I got the message that he was physically located between the two locations stated and he was chasing Beckett through deep snow and had Beckett "cornered". I can't explain how many of my nerve endings fired off at that moment but I did a quick blank look forward, blinked, checked into the reality that was Darrin's and said "I'll run home and get the car and be right there". With that, I ran off the top step of our office building entrance and I don't recall even checking for oncoming traffic before heading up the snow covered street to our home. Seeing that it was storming out and the streets were a combination of slush and snow, my dress boots (without any treads) were just the perfect running equipment for 5 or so blocks to our house. I felt like a deer on ice while sprinting, or trying to sprint, up the streets. After 2 block of a full out run, it became clear that I needed to pace myself or the next call Darrin would get would be from the hospital telling him I'd given myself a heart attack! Later on I forgave myself for not having better lungs by justifying that NOBODY sprints in slush and snow covered streets without gasping for air after two blocks!

I was almost to the apartment, my mouth was dry, my lungs were somewhere near the back of my tongue, and that elusive finish line (being the car) seemed miles away. Then it hit me, there was ice covering on all the cars around me. I was going to have to scrape the damn thing off too! With that reality rush, I did my hyper-thing I do. Car prep had to take place. I managed to get my fingers in the edge of the ice covered car door after using the remote to unlock it. Then using the 1/4 inch of finger grasping ability, I pried open the door and slid inand started the car. The ice encrusted windshield was going to be an issue so grabbed the scrapper and madly went at stabbing the front windshield as if I were some crazed killer. By the way, I'd suck as a crazed killer. I don't think I hit the same spot more than twice and the 'clearness' of the window ended up being a few zones of vision and the rest ice coated. So, off I went up the street to come to the aid of Darrin's stocking Beckett. I think I was praying along the way to make it there alive. I forget that part of it all... mostly a blur.

Being a storm, everyone was driving slow, or so it seemed to me. Along the way I was giving nasty looks and the odd sworn word to people here and there. Didn't they realize my world was crashing in? Where was there compassion! LOL I think I still reached the location in record time considering I had to drive through town in the poor weather.

After reaching the spot where I expected to see Darrin standing out in the field, I couldn't see a thing. The whiteouts were really bad and after driving through them I didn't see Darrin off to the side. With that I parked the car in the hardware store's lot and began running up and over the plowed up snowbanks expecting to see him just on the other side.

To my horror I couldn't find him in any direction and discovered that a plowed up snowbank at a parking lot's edge is a great lookout! Did I mention I was hauling around the wire corral cage with me. Yeah. I grabbed that thinking it would be good to scoop Beckett rather than let him slip through our fingers. That little guy can hope straight up in the air from a dead stop!

So, here I am standing at the top of a snowbank with cars driving by, I'm doing the scouting look off into the distance stance, with my hand up to my forehead while holding a big cage in my other hand. I resorted to digging out my cell at that point and called Darrin. He picked up saying he had caught Beckett and was now back at the clinic. I was so relieved at that point that I went into my relief laugh but then broke out into a full laugh when I realized how I looked to people passing by in their cars. Oddly enough nobody showed up to take me away in one of those coats with the long sleeves before I got out of there. During our brief check-in I agreed to meet Darrin at the apartment to help so off I went.

Beckett and Darrin were both a wreck when I met them parked alongside the apartment building. Darrin had horrible colour and an awful look in his eyes. I didn't know if Beckett had hurt himself in the escape attempt and Darrin wasn't telling me or what. As it turns out, Darrin was just overcome by the experience and, being an introvert, was pushing it all back inside. Me, being an extrovert, just wanted to talk about it! It wasn't the warmest of moments between us while trying to corner Beckett in the back seat and coordinate the capture. A miller dog without a collar is like catching a greased eel with your bare hands. Darrin managed to get him from the side as I spoke to him from the front seat. Once inside the apartment building, Beckett went to the shelter of the third floor apartment where he knew he'd be safe.

Darrin and I followed and set Beckett up as best we could in order to allow him to calm down. LOL It took us a bit longer ourselves to calm down.

Today Beckett is back at it and his new collar is just fine and he's walking very well with it. Only a little pee accident through the night and no signs of blood or large swelling so I think we're on the good road again. Now to somehow remove the drama from our lives! Wish us luck.