So Katr's off in Toronto at the moment, because she's going to be on CBC's Test the Nation Sunday night! Wooo! She, along with the lovely Lex, are on the "Bloggers" team and the topic is "Trivia". Kick some Flight Crew ass, ladies! Woooo!
I must confess, I'm glad it's Katr in the hot seat and not me - the only answer I ever know in Trivial Pursuit is "Mary Pickford". And sometimes I'll just holler out "Mary Pickford!" for the whole game. We, uh, don't play often.
I always miss Katr when she goes away, but she knows I also enjoy having some fan girl friends come by for a reading of my latest installment of Gina Torres/Katee Sackoff slash fiction quiet time, hanging out pantsless, eating crackers for dinner and staying up late knitting The Sock Neverending while watching racy costume dramas and humming my new favourite song at key moments in the action.
Of course, I can't go into FULL sloth mode while Katr's away anymore, because the dog refuses to walk herself and the fuzz insist on pants-wearing, at least below Hastings St. But this trip, for the first day at least, I did get an unexpected dog-walking reprieve. Because the dog was sick. Again.
The first time the Emmy Lou got sick was the night before Katr, Jaro and I were about to take her on a 9 hour drive through the mountains to the family Thanksgiving. As she's such a stoic pup and this was the first time she'd been ill, I totally freaked out. I was sure she'd been poisoned or felled by some dog plague. There were calls to the emergency vet and yes, yes, there were tears. Everyone we talked to told us it was probably just a stomach thing and to see how she was in the morning.
The next day she was extremely tired and feeble, but seemed to have recovered enough to sleep in the car all day. So off we went through the Rockies and by the next day, she back to her old self, eating fine and annoying giant elk in the national park.
The next time she got sick was the night before Katr and I left for Toronto for our big gay wedding. Totally the same thing she'd had the last time; the only thing the two incidents had in common was that we were obviously going on a trip and she might be left behind. Hmmm . . .
Naturally we began to wonder if our pooch, who's already known among our various dogsitters as "the Canine Queen of Passive Resistance", was actually making herself sick because she thought we were leaving. We wondered what it was that was tipping her off. Were we treating her differently? Was there a word or phrase she was picking up on? Obviously, the suitcases were a dead giveaway . . . or was it really just a coincidence?
This time, Katr deliberately saved packing until the last minute, but she was no match for Emmy Lou. Clearly sensing that change was nigh, the dog was sick by sundown and the poor thing spent the evening barfing on the one rug in the house (why not the hardwood, Emmy? WHY?) and staggering around like she needed a walker.
By the next morning, she was so worn out that all she wanted to do was whiz on the median and come back inside, thus leaving my day free for hookers and blow cozy reflection. Ha ha! Poor little dog. Yet for me, delightful.
Of course, the dog is neither fully a delicate flower OR an evil genius - I think she's probably just a delicate genius. A delicate fuzzy genius who hates being left behind. Of course, now that I've deked her out by staying home with her this time, I'll be very curious to further test our theory and see if she gets sick again in February, when Katr and I take off for our annual trip to Monterey, where the sea lions await. I know you are all looking forward to a new crop of my fascinating nature videos.
In the meantime, other dog owners, if you have any dog-management tips on this topic, please feel free to leave a comment below. Because I don't think my brother's suggestion that we feed the dog some canine cannibis treats is the best way to go.
P.S. After I posted this, I realized that it kind of looks like I deliberately took a picture of the dog being sick so I could mock her on my blog. Not true! The picture is actually from the fall. And she's just SLEEPY. Okay, thank you.
