MUCH Better Night....

Well, tonight was a MUCH better night than last Monday night...for a whole bunch of reasons. First and foremost, aunt Sharon is home and is feeling better. Last Monday night was by far the worst period of her illness. She snapped out of it on Tuesday, thankfully and began to improve greatly. On Tuesday night, I again took the Truth down there to see her. When we got in the room, Truth ran over to the bedside and was so very excited to see her mom. I had to pull her back to get the harness off her so she could jump on the bed. She has become somewhat of a twit about jumping in the car in her harness, but I think last Tuesday she would have overcome her grievance about that if she had to. We helped Sharon get a shower and it was all uphill from there. She was able to come home Thursday - after being diagnosed with e-coli. Still not sure where it came from or if she was run down and her body just could not fight it off. She is still tired, but very happy to be home. And the rest of us were relieved the doctors were able to find out what it was - at the worst of it last Monday night, they did not know the origin of the illness. Thankfully in all this, her kidney continue to "kick butt" as it had for the past 7 years, and despite the rest of her body being ill, her kidney was just fine.

Chelsie was fantastic tonight - I am a little worried she might not be feeling well. She actually walked on her short lead like a civilized canine being and kept the whining to a minimum tonight. She was civilized on her leash to and from the car. Mom was very happy - hopefully she will remember this behavior.

We managed to do it again - leave 2 people in tears. One room was this middle aged guy, it seemed as though he had a stroke. He spoke very slowly and seemed to drool somewhat. I asked him if he wanted to come in, and he said yes. As I was moving the chair next to his bed, he all of a sudden started crying and saying how much he missed his dogs. I asked him if having us there was too upsetting, but he said no. We had a real nice visit for about 15 minutes before little angel belle got restless. But she kept the whining to a minimum, which was very nice. She even gave him her paw twice and he thought that was pretty cool. I told the nurse we might have made him a little emotional - turns out it was the nurse who was emotional last week. Her parents had to put their little Sheltie down and did not tell the kids because of final week. She was doing better this week.

We met some really nice people tonight. The first lady liked pets, but from a distance, so Chelsie laid down outside her door while I talked to her. She was a very good girl to lay down. We saw Margaritaville man's room, and his niece and nephews were there, and they got to see the dog. The grandmother said they would be afraid of the dog, but I put Chel in a down and they all stepped up and petted her - very carefully. Another man was an older gentleman with his daughter in the room. I took her in there, and he was able to arrange himself in bed to get up and see her. The nurses were there and they asked him if he wanted help sitting up in bed - he said he would try on his own and the nurses were very happy with his efforts. They gave him a little extra help and he was quite comfortable. Chelsie then jumped up in a chair and sat next to his bed, and the guy thought that was just the greatest thing. We were there for about an hour and 20 minutes tonight, which is a long time, however, she was still going strong. It took us about an hour to get down one side of the hall tonight, but very few people were interested in seeing us on the other side. By that time it was getting to be after 8, and a lot of people are usually dozing by then. Therapy is very intensive and I think most of those poor people are worn out by then. Chelsie was usually worn out by then too. :)

And, finally, on our way out, we made baby Laura cry. She was in the parking garage with her parents (who were chain smoking - at least her mother was) and apparently loved doggies. She was "just but 9 months old" according to her mother and put everything in her mouth, but her mother "reckoned that all kids near that age did done do the same thing". Chelsie stuck her nose under the stroller and Laura did not flinch. We spoke for a few minutes - her parents were really nice. Spoke like they was from the South but dressed like Marilyn Manson. It was an interesting combination. When we said good night, she watched us walk away, spit out her bink, and threw a tantrum. And that my friends, was how our evening ended.

She was fabulous tonight - did a lot of great work. We made a difference tonight. Mom told her she was a SUPER good puppy. After her hour of hard work, she is resting comfortably on the corner of the couch. The pet spray to keep them off the furniture does not work, as I have saturated these couches down here in and both animals were still on it tonight...

Next week mommy will be in Myrtle Beach celebrating grammie and grampie's 40th wedding anniversary, which is next Sunday. Chelsie will go to doggie camp for the week at Dr. Tami's - grammie has even agreed to be the bad guy and take her. Camp is not really a fun place for the baby angel, but I guarantee MB will be fun for the mama! She will survive!

I hope this finds everyone having a good summer. I still have aspirations of going to CP's house to live on the otter pop diet and have a fun day, every day, but until then, I will have to get creative and plan my own fun activities. MB is a good start. Take care and look for my next post on Monday, July 9.

Love,

Nicole and the Chelsie Belle