When I got home tonight Milly was there to greet me at the kitchen door to let her out to do her business before supper but no Butler. This happened one night last week too and my first thought concerning Butler was that he had died during the day but then realized that if Butler was no longer among the living, Milly would be freaking out and not waiting by the kitchen door to be let out before supper. Last week I found Butler sprawled on the floor and not able to get up. So......I thought that would be the situation with Butler again tonight. I looked in the living room and no Butler - thought that was really weird. I knew I had closed the door that goes upstairs but thought maybe somehow the door hadn't closed tightly, had come open and Butler had gone upstairs - nope the door was closed. Now I was really wondering what the deal was and then I saw him - poor guy - way over in the corner by the front door on his tummy not able to get up. He saw me and started to whimper and I immediately went to him talking to him in a calm voice trying to get him to calm down. I pet him, talked to him and then lifted him up high enough so he could get his feet under him. His front legs were shaking pretty badly so I held him for a while until they quit shaking and then he slowly made it out to the kitchen to go outside. It hurts to see him like that - and I try not to think about how long he might have been laying like that during the day. Other than having an issue with the laminate floor and sometimes having his feet go out from under him and not being able to get back up - he's doing fine at 15 years. At their spring check-up this year Butler's blood work was better than Milly's.
Then I had a Milly issue. I've only done this twice with tonight being the second time. When she came in from outside, somehow I shut the very tip of her tail in the kitchen door and she let out a scream - which I don't blame her. I went upstairs to change my clothes and then back to the kitchen to nuke something for my supper and saw blood drops all over the kitchen floor......from Milly's tail. Well.......at least the kitchen floor has been cleaned and disinfected now.
And tonight waiting for me on the enclosed front porch was a large box which I knew would be the CaringBridge books I had ordered of Mike's web site. I opened the box to verify the number of books shipped was correct and pulled one book out for me to look at. I flipped through the book really quick and it is awesome. I'm not ready yet to go through the book entry by entry but I will someday soon.
They sure have it rough don't they :)
