I Whine

I have a bad update on Georgia. I probably  got about 10 hours of sleep the last four nights combined. I am terribly stressed out I can’t fall asleep and keep waking up at the slightest noise or movement of the dogs. Naturally, I’m crankier and grumpier and bitchier than usual if it’s even possible. And this post is going to be very VERY whiny and might get depressing. You’ve been so warned.

Last Saturday, I noticed Georgia move around a little differently than her usual. It’s hard to describe it because Georgia, having only one front leg, already moves around quite differently from other dogs to begin with. By Sunday, she was hesitant coming down the stairs and I decided I should take her to the vet. I called the vet’s office the next day and made the appointment for August 9th because the vet is on vacation. But by that night, Georgia was not able to climb down the stairs by herself and couldn’t run, so I took her to the emergency vet clinic nearby, where I, by the way, would never take any of my dogs to any more unless it’s something very simple that doesn’t need a diagnosis, the reasons for which I will not enumerate here.

Anyway. The vet guessed that it’s Lyme disease and/or arthritis on her FRONT elbow which somehow got aggravated because her elbow was making noises. After a couple of X-rays, we found out she does have arthritis, which crushed me badly. For most dogs, it would not be such a devastating news, but for a three-legged dog with only one front leg, it’s a terrible blow. I cried all night and most of the day the next day. The impact on her lone front elbow whenever she takes one step is much MUCH greater than the impact on a dog with two front legs. To take a step, she has to lift her entire front body up from the chest and then come down with the front leg HARD. It’s much different from normal dogs who can just walk and run around with lifting one leg at a time. Not only that, because of the force of coming back down, the front leg tends to slide forward, which of course is extremely bad for arthritic dogs.

So I am looking into carpeting downstairs. I ordered two ramps (one for climbing up the car and one for inside) and a set of steps so that Georgia can easily go up and down the couches. I have been sleeping downstairs on the sofa because now I have to keep Georgia from going upstairs – the baby gates are useless against uneven surfaces of the banister if and when Georgia is motivated to climb up the stairs, so I have to look into redoing the banister and installing some kind of permanent barrier at the bottom of the staircase.

The part I’m having the most trouble is the logistics part of the new living arrangement. For Georgia to be downstairs full time, Brooklyn needs to be downstairs as well. Otherwise, Brooklyn would eventually be able to come out of the bedroom through the hole she would have made, then barf up the gray cement she would have consumed, and go after Grizzley or Brandy or Foster. But since Brandy and Foster needs to go outside too, Brooklyn needs to be confined in the room upstairs while that happens. Then the howling starts and the hole in the wall gets bigger and bigger. And there is the problem with Grizzley having to be confined while Brooklyn is downstairs, and having been the king of his domain, roaming the house as he pleased until now, he’s not happy about it at all. All in all, it’s very stressful to everybody and complicated operation if Brooklyn has to reside downstairs instead of the master bedroom because downstairs is all open. So I need to figure out a way to block either the living room or den or dining room area.

So far, my very rough calculation comes out to be about $2,000 to carpet the downstairs with the cheapest remnants advertised. I will be visiting the carpet stores tomorrow. I don’t even know what’s involved in blocking one room or installing new banisters, and I haven’t the faintest how to go about even looking for people to do it AND do it at the lowest possible cost. While I’m looking at spending a few thousand dollars to do this, last night Foster went around my mattress and a doggy bed in the master bedroom, and peed on them to mark this new territory. The mattress is about 15 years old and I’ve been meaning to get a new one except that I haven’t had the money to, and now Foster is forcing me to buy one and he got some major cold shoulder last night. So as of now, I’m looking at $5,000 at least to be spent in the very near future, and that’s about $5,000 more than I have.

I looked into dipping into my 401K, and it turns out that I cannot make a loan because I already have a loan that I took out when buying the house, which maxed out the number of loans I can make – a whopping one fucking loan! I cannot make a withdrawal either because if I make the hardship withdrawal, I have to take the entire balance out. I’m more than pissed about this because it’s MY FUCKING MONEY DAMN IT!!!!! **shakes fist** Well, now I have to ask friends if they can lend me some money, which I hate to do because it’s not something I can pay back in a few weeks or a few months. Hopefully a couple of them are willing to lend me money for a year or so until the tax season next year.

I’m tired. So. Very. Tired.