Make time stop and listen for our sighs

[austin_dern]

Terrible news, regarding pet health. Not for our pet rabbit, but for one of bunnyhugger's parents' dogs. The rest is hidden behind the cut because if you don't need terrible pet health news in your day you shouldn't have to have it.

bunnyhugger's parents' older dog, the one with pancreatitis, has worse than that. It turns out she has a great number of tumors around her pancreas and there's nothing to do. They've scheduled the appointment to put her down, rather than make her (and bunnyhugger's parents) endure however much treatment that wouldn't make a difference. She's barely seven years old.

The urgency of the diagnosis, and work schedules, mean that neither of us even have the chance to go visit and say goodbye to her. I'm not sure we would feel better if we had. I'm fairly sure the dog wouldn't feel better, at least not for seeing me, since she was very unsettled by me being around and not leaving however much she looked worriedly at me. bunnyhugger she liked more, but would still need some time to feel reassured had no mischief in mind.

I've known for a day and change now and I'm still not acclimated to the fact. She's neurotic, sure --- we'll never stop talking about the time she wouldn't eat the scraps of potato chips because the bowl they were in was too deep --- but she was acting her usual enduring-the-strange-man-in-her-home self when we visited for Easter. Figured there'd be another decade or so, which shows what anyone knows about anything.

Trivia: In 1780 James Watt patented a copying press, capable of duplicating documents. The document to be copied was written in a special ink based on gum arabic or sugar; over top this was laid a dampened sheet of tissue. The tissue and original are pressed together tight and a legible, if mirrored, copy of the original came out on the tissue. Provided the copy is made within a day of the original writing. Source: Wondrous Contrivances: Technology at the Threshold, Merritt Ierley.

Currently Reading: The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, Dava Sobel.