Hi y'all,

Now, it begins. ...

Except that I guess it began yesterday. (Or since it's now very early Saturday morning, it began the day before yesterday.)

Karl has, as I mentioned, been slowing down. He has also taken to walking on the extreme right edge of the sidewalk, sometimes so extremely that I was literally almost in the grass. I tried directing him over to the middle of the sidewalk, and he'd go...for a few feet...then ease back over to the very right edge again. Well yesterday, at about the third block, I finally got sick of being run off the road, stopped Karl with a correction, and moved both of us over to the middle of the sidewalk. Same thing the second block, and from then on, he was walking at a good clip--good speed, good pull, absolutely perfect! I thought, hey, this is great...maybe he just wanted to know i was still paying attention.

But it didn't last. On the way home, he slowed back down--though he didn't crowd the right edge of the sidewalk anymore. That was OK. ... But the last block before the one my house was on, he started to stumble and weave a bit. Only a bit...so we pulled over so he could park (relieve, whatever). That done, we got the rest of the way home without any further problems.

The last couple days have been wet and rainy and cold. I was concerned...Karl was slipping more than usual on our floors...true, they're slippery, but he's usually got pretty good footing. Melanie chalked it up to the slippery floors, but I thought there was something more. No telling.

Today I had one of those wacky late shifts--4:30 to 1AM, but I was running late, of course. Karl basically said he didn't want to come. He stood in the door to the dining room, ears cocked, watching my every move, so Melanie says, but he didn't come when we called him to go off to work. Not the first time, not the second time, not the time we stood at the door. So off I went with my trusty cane.

I'm glad to be a good cane traveler, but all that was running through my mind was how much I missed having Karl there. Frustrating as some of his habits were (like crowding the right edge of the sidewalk, walking up to walls and at the last minute veering off to the passage we wanted, and so on), I sure missed him. I guess it took about the same amount of time to get to work as it usually does. It seemed longer, and it seemed shorter. While I didn't find every pole, planter, garbage can, and so on, I did notice that my crossings weren't quite as straight...seems Karl did make them fairly perfectly...and wasn't going too far out into traffic as it sometimes sounds like he is. My mind was spinning. ... Is this it? Was it just the weather? Is it the weather and leftover infection?

Let me backtrack. Right now, I'm a little annoyed. Karl has this urinary infection. Has had for some time. We've tried knocking it out a couple times. ... Well...last round of antibiotics...I told you about his treatment already. Well apparently the lab results are in. I don't have all the details except that he still has something I suppose. ... But GDB told my vet not to do anything without consulting them first. I feel a bit micromanaged...and so, apparently, does my vet...for lack of a better word. Anyhow, he faxed them the results on the 10th and hasn't heard from them yet. With my wacky schedule, I haven't been able to call them (and Tuesday when I could have I wasn't in a very cooperative or friendly state of mind after calling the vet, obviously). So...Monday or Tuesday, I'll give them a call and see what the hell's going on off in here.

But back to my day without Karl. ... Everyone who's retired a dog undoubtedly knows this whole story. I got to work and am walking through the parking lot. A guy also coming in asks if I could use a hand, so I accept his assistance. He says, "Hey, where's your dog?" I said, "He decided he didn't want to come in today." He laughed. He LAUGHED! I said, "You may think it's funny, but it is not." And he answered...well...that he wasn't laughing about that...blah blah blah. ... Then we get up further and someone else says, "Hey, you're missing someone!" (People have this amazing ability to state the obvious.) And on and on it went, one after the other. "Where's your dog?" "Where's your dog?" "Where'd you leave your dog?" "Your dog is missing!" I just took to saying, "He's at home." And someone finally had the poor taste to say, "You can't come here without your dog!" (after asking where he was, while I was on the phone.) I asked my customer to hold for a second and shouted at their retreating back, "OK, I'll just go home then!" And continued on my job.

I mean, all day long. Where's your dog? And someone else asked about another dog, and what was I going to do, and she'd just have to have a talk with that dog of mine. I know people are just trying to be nice, but...umm...please don't try to be understanding, or make light of it. It's hard enough already. ... I'm afraid I wasn't very nice...when one person asked about how I go about getting another dog...do I just send off for one?...I couldn't help but answer that I send in my $19.95 and the dog gets sent via UPS. (Sheesh)

So I came home...and there was Karl. Came out of the bedroom to say hello. Just walked up, friendly as you please, as if to say, "Hi, I'm still here!" I wonder if he knows how much I missed him?

Well...we'll take it a day at a time and see what else happens. Hopefully tomorrow's a better day...but we'll take tomorrow when it gets here.