The Boy with the Boots

Here he is, our old man, begging for a treat, even as the buffalo-hump of IV fluids makes him look like The Humpback of Notre Dawg. His hind legs splay out in front of him, his booties sliding on the worn linoleum.

These red and black boots are now necessary for outside walks as Sparkey drags his feet along the macadam, scraping the tops of his paws, resulting in stigmata which bleed and fester but are beginning to callous over.

Friday, the vet will come to our home while we're at work and draw some blood to check his kidneys and thyroid. In my nurse's mind, what's the use of giving him thyroid hormone if his levels are off? To wit, pumping him with all this fluid is fine, but I want to know if his kidneys are any worse off than they were two months ago. Just because.

Anyway, that's our boy. Another day in the life.....


---Keith