The Bonsai Run

Top o' the morning to ya!  How are we feeling today?  Tired?  Hung over?  Imbibed a little too much in the green drink yesterday?  Ah, I remember those days.  The most I "imbibed" in was an extra scoop of rice pudding.  Oh so good, but I digress.  This holiday weekend was jam packed full of a little bit of everything.  Guess I might as well just get to it.

The great majority of Saturday was spent in the first of two "Prepared Birthing" classes the hubs and I are signed up for.  Our instructor Judy has way too much energy for a Saturday and the class instructions of "bring a yoga mat and a snack" for a 10a-2p class should have been translated to "if you need to eat lunch, bring freaking lunch."  Now I know for next week.  Anyways, the class so far has been pretty informative and I can honestly say we at least feel comfortable asking questions and participating in the class dialogue.   We also realized we need to get going on writing up a birthing plan/wish list.  I guess you really shouldn't just wing it.  We followed up our class with a great lunch at Panera, a tux fitting at Men's Wearhouse, a trip to Macy's for some nursing bras (ahhhh! sizing is such a headache!!),  Lowes for some supplies for the future playroom, Harbor Freight for tools, and lastly Walmart for some last minute grocery items including the fixings for homemade Irish Soda Bread.

Photo from "Food For Thought"

Sunday we got up and got right to work on the other spare bedroom for its playroom conversion.  Justin had been working on the priming of it all week and it was time for some color.  We went with a light green that'll complement some curtains I have on hand.  So far the whole room has one coat, so we have one coat left to go and trimwork.  Photos to come eventually.  We (yes "we" - it was a team effort) also baked the Irish Soda Bread to take to my parents' later.  It actually came out great (we added in raisins).  I had to laugh while making the bread, I said to Jay "it doesn't call for eggs?" and his response was "the Irish didn't have chickens, all those Irish movies show are goats."  Too funny.  Anyways, the day was going great until our fur-child Riley jumped off my parent's couch at some point after supper.  This isn't an uncommon thing for him to do, but this time around he landed funny.  He then limped and walked like he had scoliosis.  It scared the hell out of me.  Justin immediately ran his hand down Riley's back and he didn't yelp or appear to be in pain, however he wasn't walking quite right.  So we headed out and called the Vet's office.  Their doctors are on call Monday-Friday until 10pm, however on weekends only until 5pm so we had to call the Capital District Animal Emergency Clinic since on weekends they are open from 5pm to 8am. The receptionist told us to bring him right in and that someone would be able to look at him right away.  Commence the bonsai run to Latham.

I cannot say enough good things about this clinic.  This is the first time we've ever had to do the mad dash to them and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.  We arrived there around 9:30pm and we were seen within 5 minutes of arrival by Dr. Al Lindsey.  Of course upon arrival Riley was acting totally normal which seemed to be the pattern for most of the other arriving patients.  Dr. Lindsey conducted a very thorough examination of Riley inclusive of neuromotor skills, reflexes, spinal check, hip check, etc. and after spending 40 minutes to an hour checking everything out, it was determined that Riley did not have a spinal injury.  He merely had a muscular injury which would heal up just fine with rest and he was prescribed an anti-inflammatory steroid for the next few days.  Layman's terms: he's not a young pup anymore.  We were both so relieved to hear that it wasn't anything serious.  The 45+ minute trek into Latham was so worth the peace of mind we gained.  Riley's a member of the family and neither of us could bear the thought of him in pain. So thank you Dr. Lindsey and the Capital District Animal Emergency Clinic!