off to the races

cheery yellow & cream daffodils from our gardens

It's nearly 7am. My nights have been restless and my sleep sporadic. I tried last night sneaking upstairs to sleep in my own bed for a few hours only to almost instantly hear the jangling of Winnie's collar and tags and she got up off her bed and positioned herself on the floor as close to the barricaded stairs as possible. So back down I came. For those of you who've been visiting Black Street for awhile you know my girl Miss D has some issues. She's a nervous, quite dependent shelter girl who now and forever will suffer the effects of a very bad first year of life. We don't think that she was necessarily physically abused but she was starved and ignored and she learned to be very wary of people and life in general from a very early age. She's an anxious dog and I can tell that she's become more anxious since injuring her back leg Sunday.

She often has a worried, apprehensive expression on her face - I remind myself that that is her personality but these last few days while caring for her and her serious leg injury that expression is pulling at my heart constantly. What's she thinking ? Is she uncomfortable ? I wonder. She's always been a very picky eater - some concoction I've made for her might be a big hit Monday and Tuesday and suddenly become completely unappealing to her by Wednesday. The medication she's on now must be given with food - another added stress - dreaming up things that she'll like (other than cat food) and making sure that she eats so that I can squirt her daily dose of liquid Metacam in her mouth.

This morning, we've been outside for a stroll and sniff around our yard & garden, she's taken care of both businesses (you dog lovers know that this is a tres important observation and detail - being sure all systems continue to be a go) she's had a bite of cat food and a poached chicken breast followed by her squirt of medicine ... so it would seem this early morning ... that we're off to the races.