Back in my "wilder" days, I had a friend named Corey who, when confronted with life's little stupidities, would say "dude...that's fuddedup!" Corey's statement REALLY applied to MY life today:
---> First of all, I was summoned into a conference with my boss this morning. He wants the scoop on why I didn't come to work last Friday. [You'll recall that the Scheduling Bitch at my office plopped a day of work right into the middle of my vacation] Of course my first thought was, "I've been back at work for 3 days and you're just NOW gathering up the nut juice to ask me about it?!" I treaded lightly though because he had his "serious" face on. So of course I gave him "the scoop" and he seemed satisfied, so no harm done. All I can say is that there are two good things about my job....the first one is that I really do like my boss & have a lot of respect for him; the other is that he really likes me and understands what makes me tick. If it weren't for those two factors, I'm sure at some point during the last few months, my blog entries would have been about my NEW job!
Now if that didn't start my day off right, I call my roomie on my break and he gives me some really bad news that just ruined the rest of my whole day. Here's the story:
Fourteen years ago, Chris' mom and dad were devastated when their poodle named Sugar died. She'd been in the family for quite a long time and had gotten old & sick as most animals do, and she eventually had to be put to sleep. I'm not a fan of such things, but poor Sugar was suffering pretty bad. After Sugar's death, a well meaning friend came by with a baby poodle and gave it to the family, in hopes that it might help with the loss of Sugar. At first, Chris' mom wouldn't have anything to do with the new puppy, but over time the pup became a part of the family. The new pup's name was Prissy, and like most poodles, she got to be quite the character---one of her funnier tricks was this....put a cigarette near her and she'd put it in her mouth and walk around and show it off to everyone! Trust me on this...it was VERY funny to see this little dog walking around with a cigarette (unlit of course!) in her mouth!!
I didn't get to meet Prissy until 9 years ago when Chris and I first decided that we were going to share a house...but being the animal lover that I am, I instantly fell in love with her and it didn't take long before she would completely bypass Chris to come and see me when we'd visit the parents! In fact, Prissy's preferred place to sit on the couch when I was over for a visit was right beside me! Apparently I give pretty good belly rubs to poodles!
Over the last year though, Prissy had started getting pretty sick....she went through bouts of not being able to eat, then not being able to go to the bathroom, and then eventually she developed a heart problem. All of these things were treated successfully by the vet, though he did advise that they should prepare themselves for the possibility that Prissy's time was growing short. Naturally that was hard news to take, but Prissy seemed to be holding her own...until the last couple of weeks. She'd started retaining fluid and twice was taken to the vet to have it drained. The vet cautioned again that he couldn't continue to do that because it would eventually do more harm than good....again....very hard news to take.
I was over for a visit on Saturday of last week and was playing with Prissy and I just couldn't help but feeling really sad for her...I knew that she wasn't going to last much longer, so as I was playing with her I quietly told her that everything would be ok and she looked at me with those sweet little eyes like she knew exactly what I was saying....yes, it was heart wrenching!
So this morning, Chris' mom and dad noticed that Prissy was having a hard time breathing and that her gums had changed color....they brought her in to the vet and their worst fears were confirmed....her liver had shut down and the rest of her organs were not going to be far behind it. It was time for them to let Prissy go.
It's times like this when it just kills me to think that someday I might have to make the same decision about my own poodle Sammy or my cat Miss Bigglesworth. Miss B is 10 years old now, and Sammy is 7...and I've raised both of them since they were just little babies....UGH...I don't even want to THINK about it. Yes, I know that "it's the best decision because you don't want the poor thing to suffer"....but it's still a devastating thing to lose a living creature that you've raised since their infancy. And for the record, yes I most definitely DO believe that animals have a soul and that they go to a greater beyond once they leave this life.
Sooooo.......
After THAT........
Chris has figured out what his birthday present is. I'll quote a line from Florida Evans from "Good Times" when she breaks down at the wake for her late husband James.......
"DAMN......DAMN.....DAMN!!!!!!!"
[BryM throws a punch bowl down on the floor and it shatters with an ear-splitting CRASH!]
I'm going to kill him.
No. Wait. That's too easy.
I'm going to tie a bungie cord around his ankles and drop him off the tallest bridge that I can find until he PROMISES to NEVER.....EVER.....EVEREVEREVEREVEREVER spoil another gift....EVER AGAIN!! Or at the VERY least, tell ME when he's figured it out.
Yes.
"That's fuddedup!"
