It's Called Life

This is Missy. Let me tell you what happened to Missy yesterday.

But first, we have to start at the beginning.

7:30 a.m., to be exact. Hubby wakes up unable to walk, having apparently sprained his foot in a fall the day before. I'm elected to take the kids to school and I decide to work at home so I can take care of hubby. Off to school we go. Over slick roads. And roads that are like the original Oregon Trail. Yes, they were that bad. I dropped stepson off at his school, then had to get around two accidents in the long line of cars, and proceeded to crawl to my daughter's school. We got there ten minutes late and my daughter hates to be late. It didn't make things better when we walked down the hallway to her class and there was a classmate of hers passing us who said, "Molly, you're late" in one of those "I'm-better-than-you-'cuz-I-was-on-time" voices.

On my way back to the car, after having dried a few of my daughter's tears, I slipped and fell, wrenching my neck. Ah, bliss! Another thing to deal with!

I finally get home, take care of hubby, then settle at my desk to start working. About 10:30 a.m., I hear one of the dogs whining at the backdoor. When I go to investigate, Missy, the St. Bernard, is sitting there looking quite pitiful. The back of her neck is all matted and there's a deep sense of foreboding running through me. This isn't going to be good.

And it isn't. After an icky investigatation, she has what I later learn is a "hot spot" on the back of her neck - a bacterial infection right under the skin. It's pretty much an open, oozing wound (sorry for that very gross visual, but at least you didn't have to see it in person!) and it completely covers the back of her neck.

Off to the vet we go, (sans hubby, who is reclining on the couch watching American Choppers) and there's another hour gone from work. While waiting for the vet, Missy decides to be very friendly, and jumps up in my lap, drools all over my jeans and shirt, and wants to be cuddled. I wonder if she'll be so cuddly when they shave her neck, but thankfully, she just sits there and lets them do their job. Now she has all of her hair shaved and some on the top of her head, making her look like she just survived a war. Loaded up with medicine, cleaning solution, and a $140 bill, we make it home.

Now, I think, I can finally get back to work. But wait, think again!

While telling hubby all about the vet visit, Missy is downstairs and obviously getting into trouble from the noises we hear. When I go down to investigate, I find (to my absolute horror), that Missy has decided to scratch her itchy, painful head on my bed sheets, leaving a bloody (literally!) mess in her wake. ARGH! Now I have to wash my bedding!

So now I'm fighting a raging headache caused by my fall, I have a pile of laundry to do, a wounded dog, a crippled husband, and tons of work to do. And it's time to go pick up the kids.

By the time I get home (on roads that have mostly melted, thank goodness), I just want to curl up into a ball and take a nap, but that's just not possible, especially when stepson decides he wants to give the cat a bath because she "smells funny." I have no energy to argue, so I let him. Lots of loud howls emit from the bathroom and pretty soon, stepson emerges with a soaking wet cat in his arms. And boy, she doesn't look happy.

But bathing a cat also means that you're going to have cat hair in the tub. Now why didn't I think of that when I said yes to the bath? Blame it on a debilitated brain.

So I get out the cleaner and start scrubbing. Now I'm really tired. I trudge downstairs to get some work done and find that there's no way I can do it. Will have to put in a long day the next day, is all, so I trudge upstairs and watch more American Chopper with hubby. But I still have to give the dog her second dose of antibiotic and clean her neck. Can we all say "ewwww"?

And then I decide enough is enough. It's time for a hot bath, a good book, and a long soak, and then off to bed.

I'm back at work today. Hubby is still hobbling about, I gave Missy her medicine this morning, got the kids to school on time, and now have my Diet Pepsi in hand.

The strangest thing about yesterday? I longed to escape my world and enter my fictional world. Maybe I can do that tonight...