My rant to no one

I have a really old dog called Mikey. he's stinky and not all that good-looking - courtesy of mongrel genes, I guess. He hasn't had all that great a year so far, having been diagnosed with heartworms earlier this year. i'm a bit ashamed to say that its the first time i've ever brought him to the vet in all these years. The bill made up for all those lost years though, clocking in at a good thousand bucks so far.

anyways, the treatment involves putting him on aspirin to thin his blood, and then letting loose an arsenic-derivative via two big jabs on the bum to kill the heartworms. Reason why the blood has to be thinned is because it needs to be fluid enough to expel the heartworm carcasses once they're dead. An altogether impleasant thought for a v-day post, but then hey... my last one wasn't so cheery anyway.

So one of the side-effects of the medication is that the dog is going to get awfully depressed and lethargic. doctor's advice is to keep him in a clean environment (another side effect is swelling and inflamation) and not give him too much activity. So we've kept him out of the garden in a concrete stairway that leads to our house. he doesn't seem to mind since he doesn't have much energy or an appetite these days. All kinda heartbreaking to me.

Anyhow, my mom called me today, and asked me to take him out into the streets for a poo once i got home from work. So when i got home, sure enough, he was lying in the middle of the staircase, eyes half open, hardly budging an inch. in his dish lay a half-eaten piece of bread with kaya that my mom tried to feed him earlier. So i went up, grabbed the leash and came back down.

All of a sudden, his ears perked up, and his tail started wagging for the first time in weeks. Mikey loves his walks, but lately with the new job, I haven't really had the time to take him. Anyhows, i tie him up, and the next thing i know, he's pulling hard at the leash looking for all his favourite pee-stops. halfway through, i stop down for a cigarette. he wants to go further, but i don't want to exert him too much. after giving up, he comes up to me and raises a paw... i pet him, tell him i still love him even though he's smelly and old.

we both kinda cheered each other up (me being alone on v-day), and like a good little doggie, he poos in front of my least favourite neighbour's house before coming back inside.

I think when we're feeling lethargic, and depressed, it's really in ourselves to find the will to go out and enjoy the things we love regardless. And once we've done that, we realise that everything we're feeling is half due to the circumstances around us, and half due to our own pessimistic nature. Or something like that. Or I'm just trying to sound profound.

Anyways, i'm sure his dish should be empty by morning, and I'll have made it past another stupid v-day.