Merry
Christmas!
Hi all. Yesterday as I was walking in the sunny 52o day it made me think about what a difference a year can make. Last year on Christmas Eve I had to wake up early to brave the three below zero temperature to go visit a strange veterinarian to receive my second chemotherapy treatment. Darn it was cold! And that was following a 15 hour ride in the truck through snow and ice. Yuck! This Christmas, my pack and I wisely decided to stay home for the holidays. The boss ma'am's job doesn't allow for long trips every Christmas. Personally, I'm okay with celebrating quietly with my pack. Well, with Lyle, it isn't ever really quiet.
So yesterday we watched the March of the Penguins. I just have to say thank God that I am not an emperor penguin. They get three months off in the summer to swim and eat. Okay, three months of eating all you can would be nice, but that is where the nice part of their lives ends. When it is time, they walk 70 miles through the snow and ice to find a protected spot of ice (and I use the word protected very loosely here). Then they have two weeks of shacking up followed by the laying of the egg. Mom then transfers it very carefully to dad's feet/belly fat taking extreme care to minimize the time it is exposed to the elements. If the egg is on the ice for even the briefest moment then all is lost for the year. Then mom scoots back 70 plus miles (it is very cold so there is more ice to cover on the way back) to the ocean where she eats for two months. While waiting for his baby to hatch and his sweeties' return, dad stands around with the other expecting fathers and starves for two months. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it gets to something like eighty below zero with no sun spots to keep them warm? So then baby is born and mom returns with food and it is dad's turn to run back to eat. Back and forth they go until they finally can't take it anymore and nine months after first leaving the ocean, they abandon their babies and go for their summer vacation. It is truly a remarkable story and I can't tell you how happy that I am that it isn't my story.
Well, one last thing before I head off to Christmas breakfast. On Thursday I had my latest round of dactinomycin. It was my first time back at the Animal Care Clinic in quite some time and Dr. Hathorn said that I was a bit whiter than last time she saw me. It was the first time that she had used that drug and she was much more cautious than Dr. Harris is about it. She made me stay with her for about an hour and she gave me intravenous fluids during my visit. It was okay because I got lots of loving from everyone while I was there, but as you can imagine, I was happy to go home when the time came. I felt fairly puny for the next day and a half but I didn't actually get sick which was a good thing. Also, my taste buds were off again. Now, my pack and I are saying Christmas prayers that this spooty lymphoma will leave me alone for good.
Happy holidays everyone. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, or simply happy day (if you are celebrating neither today)!