There will be no ice cream recipes today.

Let’s recap the week, thus far, shall we? remember–company is coming and as I type is probably less than two hours away. The floor cleaner is still sitting next to the breakfast table, by the way.

Monday. Missy has surgery. All goes well. Both the vet and we determine she probably won’t need a cone because she’s a pretty relaxed sort.

Tuesday. Going okay but she keeps licking and picking at her incision. Vet is closed on Tuesday, by the way.

Some context. The most direct route from the farm to the vet’s is via the old highway–skirting around town to the near side where we enter town proper. That road is out because of bridge repair, so now we have to go through town to get to the big highway. Also, the road to town is in the process of being resurfaced but as of Tuesday, they were still buttoning up some things and closing one of the two lanes. Point here is it’s been a gamble the last couple of weeks whether to take the longer back-way to town or risk sitting in traffic.

Wednesday. Missy’s come unstitched for about one-third of the length of her 6-8″ incision. Doesn’t look great but not too bad. Take photo, go to vet’s office to get cone. Bring her back in at 2:00 so she can be stapled.

Later Wednesday. Missy escapes from cone, takes out staples. After 5. Get first-aid supplies from emergency supply tub in Tornado Room. Patch her up with a liberal dousing of Neosporin, sterile gauze and micropore tape. Give her a second dose of antibiotic to get the titer up. Before bed, give her a Benydryl.

The original Thursday plan. Take John to campus, do Starkvegas errands, get hair cut, come home, finish prettifying house and apartment for guest. Wait and post ice cream recipes.

Thursday. Take cone off so Missy can go out first thing unencumbered. Let Rocky out, see bandages in yard. Repeat patching. Put Missy and cone in truck. Black lab with 40″ cone in the backseat of the truck is a (please God) once in a lifetime experience. Down the driveway, down our little road to the bigger little road where I see a county pickup sitting sideways across the road. And this is where I lost my patience.

“Sorry, ma’am. They’re taking out the road to fix it.”

“Where’s Pat?”

“Fixing the road.”

“Get him on the phone.”

Now, I know exactly what they’re doing and where. That 25′ piece of culvert has been sitting beside the road with the minor pavement failure and orange warning flags for probably two years. And they decide to pick this morning to fix it.

I spoke briefly to Pat–our county supervisor–and he let me through. Pays to know people.

Conclusion. I got the breakfast table cleaned off and set. Missy spent some time at the vet’s while John and I went to Starkvegas and did what had to be done. Vet’s office called just as we were leaving so we picked her up on our way home. She is re-stitched, and has a new, tighter fitting collar for her cone. She is sleeping off the little bit of anesthesia they had to give her. I hated that they had to do that because of her age. On the other hand, it would suck to have to amputate a severely infected leg.

Oh. And apparently Missy has lost her patience as well. She snapped at the vet!

She has also added three days to the time she can have stitches taken out. I have put the gate up in the doorway so she’s confined to the den. The cone is not coming off, and she’s going outside only on a leash.

THE END