Fixed

by Donna Schoenkopf

These are the things I’ve fixed this week:

1. Diego the Dog

Diego had been lying around the house, not eating much, sleeping a lot.

I had been noticing this, but considering Diego’s ability to be injured in some way or other on a daily basis and somehow heal himself, I decided I would wait out whatever the problem was and not rush to conclusions.

Here are some of the things that have happened to Diego:

I tried to take a thorn out of his paw, couldn’t (he would NOT hold still enough), and he was back to walking normally on that foot the following day. Saved me $50.

I put optic antibiotic ointment in his runny eye a couple of weeks ago. The ointment was left over from Che the Cat’s medication to treat his massively infected eyes. I had taken Che to Dr. Evans for that reason and to rid his massively infected ears of mites. I had adopted Che with both those maladies and had been battling them for months and months. In fact, the eye ointment was the second tube. Dr. Evans doesn’t charge for extra medication. You just go to his clinic and get it from the receptionist/vet’s assistant.

But I digress.

I pulled a stinging burr out of Diego’s ear this week. Man, they HURT when you touch their points. ¡Ai, chihuahua!

A day or two later he was again shaking his head, so, thinking he had again gotten a burr in his ear, I looked deep down into that huge tunnel with a flashlight, nothing, felt around gently ... nothing.

The next day, no shaking of the head.

Spontaneous emission?

Saved some more money.

I have put antibiotic salve on the long barbed wire cuts on his head which he got when he tried to get out of Jim’s yard after he heard me coming down the road a couple of weeks ago. He loves to follow me home when I give him two little honks as I pass the mailboxes.

I have also applied antibiotic cream lately on some rashes UNDER HIS ARMS that he had gotten in some mysterious way.

So I didn’t jump at going to the vet’s for some rather nebulous reason, like not eating and sleeping all the time. He miraculously heals himself (mostly).

Then a few nights ago Neighbor Jim called to ask me if Diego was all right.

(Neighbor Jim and I had been sharing the pleasure of Diego’s company for almost as long as Diego has lived with me. Diego loves Jim and Jim’s dog Sally. He hangs out with them during most days and comes home in midafternoon, about the time I usually come home from substitute teaching. He gets lonely when I’m gone. And Jim loves him. So we share him.)

I told Jim he’d been sleeping a lot and not eating much.

That’s when he told me that he had been helping another neighbor with her roofing when she told Jim that the little neighbor girl across from him had told HER that Diego had eaten some rat poison.

I told Jim I thought it was okay. That Diego was still eating somewhat and if he hadn’t died by now, he was probably okay.

But I went on the Internet to make sure and found out that rat poison is VERY deadly for dogs. And that symptoms start 36 to 48 hours after ingestion. And that Vitamin K will stop the internal hemorrhaging that rat poison causes in animals.

So I called the drug store and asked if they had Vitamin K and the kindly pharmacist said that it was by prescription only because it could injure the heart.

So I called the vet’s service and she put me in touch with one of the vets and he said not to worry. Come in, in the morning. He’ll give Diego a shot and some Vitamin K pills. And, really, nothing happens until about a WEEK after ingestion. And, ACTUALLY, most dogs don’t die from it.

Hmmmmmmm. I HATE when medical experts disagree.

I went in the next morning and Dr. Evans, my favorite vet (tall, big, cowboy of a vet, with a rugged homely face), took over and weighed Diego (who was afraid to get on the scale), found out he weighed 86.5 pounds, determined his dosage (two shots), and didn’t even mention capsules.

He said to watch his gums for hemorrhaging and bring him in right away if there’s any bleeding but that he was pretty sure he was okay. And, by the way, it’s worse for a dog to eat little amounts of rat poison over a period of time than for a big meal of rat poison at one sitting.

I asked him to look in Diego’s ears (just in case a burr WAS in there), they were fine, and what, please, about all that chewing he does on his rump and tail? We determined it was probably grass allergies. (Diego has NO fleas. Just a ton of ticks during tick season.)

2. Kitchen drawer

Awhile back I finally had saved enough money and bought some kitchen cabinets to replace the cruddy milk crates which were serving as makeshift shelves for canned goods.

I had been craving kitchen cabinets. I would fantasize about the long, sleek countertop I’d have as work space.

They arrived and the Lowe’s guys dollied them into the house. I asked them to put them to one side because I wanted to plan my strategy of emptying and loading stuff.

When I had finally determined their new spaces I began shuffling them over to their permanent place on the concrete floor and, wouldn’t you know, I tipped one over and didn’t realize that I had somehow made the drawer’s metal runner bend, making closing the drawer difficult. And opening even more difficult.

Great.

Because of all this I had been pulling a little more strenuously than usual on it and pulled one side of the drawer’s face off of its anchoring screw.

Now I had a gorgeous line of white cabinets and a lovely countertop with the hideous sight of one drawer pulled off the cabinets. It was ugly.

So today, I tried to screw it back on.

I went out to the shed and, making sure there were no rattlers on the shelf, grabbed my electric drill hastily and beat it back to the house.

I couldn’t use the electric drill.

Why? Because the cord had been chewed through by a gnawing thing. A mouse? Rat? So I tried hand turning the screws with my trusty philips head screwdriver. Nawwww. Too tough. Wore my screwdriver’s head down doing it.

Finally, I took Nephew Tom’s advice and just NAILED it back together. Felt real good to just smack it and watch those nails smoothly enter that damn laminate with no trouble at all.

The drawer looks great. And slides like a dream. Nothing like a good pounding to straighten things out.

3. Chicken cacciatore

I had browned the chicken in a large frying pan, added the tomatoes and sauce and wine and Italian seasoning and garlic and even some balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

But the pan wasn’t large enough.

So after having it bubble up on the top of the stove, leaving greasy red puddles everywhere, I finally dragged my big stew pot out of the pot cupboard, put it in the sink, carried the boiling chicken cacciatore over to the sink WITHOUT spilling a drop and poured the steaming hot mess into the pot. Put it back on the stove and smiled a great big smile as I fit a lid perfectly in place.

Then I thought a bit. Tasted the stuff. Needed salt. Added it.

And now it’s perfect.

4. Outdoor furniture

The season is turning from a rainy end-of-summer to a cold and clear beginning-of-autumn. There was a big wind a few days ago that blew things around. Like the outdoor furniture. Last year it blew chairs and tables into the trees down the hill, so this year I am prepared.

I went outside and gathered tables and chairs. I stacked chairs out in the side yard behind the shed. I took the legs out of the tables and laid them next to the chairs.

Done for the winter.

5. Outdoor plants

I look at all the succulents and the plumeria tree daughter Rebecca gave me and realize I have to bring them in for the winter. The weatherman says it’s going to freeze in the next few days. So I begin hauling them in and putting them on the floor next to the sliding glass doors. There are eleven huge plants.

I step back and look at them. They are beautiful from the long summer on the decks.

And now I have a greenhouse full of cheery plants to smile at me through the long winter.

6. Angela Davis

Angela Davis is a neighbor dog. (I name all animals after political heroes of mine.) Her owner has never wanted her. She was the last of an unwanted litter. I have watched those puppies from that litter grow and then be given away, except for her. She is starving. She is also in heat. Her ribs stick out and she cringes when anyone comes near her. She is pathetic.

She sometimes comes up to the house and I put out food for her. And water. She’ll stay till evening, then home she goes.

Today she got food, water, petting (she was too shy before), and nested in Diego’s nest he’s made out of cushy grass next to the cottonwood tree.

I bet I’ll have a litter soon. Not from Diego.

He’s fixed.

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