At First Light

All night long at the hospital, the Vet kept giving me more and more medicine until I woke up. My head still pained, but not quite as bad. I was so disappointed that I’d lost My People; they had seemed nice. I started to feel a little sicker when I thought I might have to go back to Evil Steve and Wicked Wanda and dreaded being returned to the Gangsta House. I am soooo not gangster material. This was a source of restless worry for the rest of the night, slipping in and out of consciousness with a fever of 106 spiking up and down.

At first light, a nice woman named Z removed me from my hospital bed. She smelled like hand sanitizer and cinnamon sticks and had a long braid that felt comforting to chew as she carried me along. I thought perhaps she was taking me home with her, but guess what?! We went through a big swinging door and My People were waiting for me with the stupid pink blanket! I love my pink blanket now. As I smiled and licked The Lady’s face and chewed her ears, Z told them I had been gravely ill. I seemed much better now and they were letting me go home, but I was to come back if anything happened. I did not have Parvo, which was a very good thing, but nobody could figure out what was wrong with me. There was some animated discussion about Evil Steve and how The Lady had called him at 1:30 in the morning from the hospital parking lot to tell him I was very sick and that she was worried about my brother and sisters. In return, Evil Steve screamed through the phone at her that it wasn’t his fault and I didn’t need to go to the Vet at all and that they should have just called him first and he would have come to get me and take me back. He insisted I was fine and there was nothing wrong with me. He was lying again because he knew I had really bad diarrhea when I was still with him. He had told My People that my tummy was a little upset because I had just switched to puppy food instead of my mother’s milk. That was another lie, since it had only been one or two days since I’d seen my mother. I know I was sick when I left that bad place, and I knew my sisters were even sicker. Z said they did the right thing by bringing me to the hospital.

Back at the house with My People, I felt OK for a while, I really did. Once inside, The Man held me close to his body and walked around telling me what everything was called. “These are called stairs. This is the den. This is the sofa. This is the piano. This is a lamp. This is the door to the outside.” After each item, he gave me a little kiss on the head and put his cheek against my fur. He feels so safe.

It was a nice day so they put me down in the back yard where I wobbled around, unsteady on my chubby little legs, and rested in the grass. A warm breeze tickled the wind chimes that hung from the pear tree and I cocked my head from side to side to hear such interesting sounds. Another gust of wind blew the remaining leaves from the branches and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I sat down on a big flat stone in the path and looked up in wonder as a million golden colored leaves fluttered from the sky all around me like butterflies or snow. It was so beautiful I ran to The Lady and licked her ankles. They kept trying to feed me, but it still felt like I had hamsters scurrying around in my intestines, so I refused. Every time I stood up, they cheered and said, “Good Boy,” so I tried to move around as much as possible to make them happy, but then I started to feel tired and funny again. Finally I just couldn’t do it anymore and scooted under a big azalea bush. I didn’t get up again by myself.

The Man called the hospital while The Lady lifted me out from under the plant. She sat on the brick steps and held me in her lap. My head fell back against her chest and into a patch of sunshine. Slowly I blinked and then made a big sigh because it and felt nice on my fur. She just squeezed me tighter and stroked my face and told me everything would be all right.

I was only home for a few hours before I went back to the hospital for another overnight stay.

I learned the name for the piano, but still I did not have a name of my own.