Stigmas

it's 4:00 p.m. in the holy city of zefat. i just turned down the prospect of a night out, participating in a bagel bake off and watching a new woody allen movie. besides being nervous about leaving cookie dog alone, i'm only eating fruits this week and i've been 'off' woody allen for years now. i think that he is a self hating jew and i refuse to support his latest efforts.

i went to the seniors' day center this morning. i really didn't want to leave the house. i'm taking care of sahar tomorrow and i figured that this might be my only chance this week to get out. i didn't want to get there too late so i splurged on a taxi.

to my surprise, they were having a rosh chodesh party in the large dining room. they had live entertainment and i got to hang with my 'buddies'. some of the women danced but i held myself back. i don't dance in front of men. especially, old men. i did move around the room and clap my hands very rigorously. that got a marked response from the crowd.

before i left for the center, i cleansed cookie's wounds and massaged the almond oil/lavender mixture into her mangey eaten flesh. i also hand fed her some canned tuna, scrambled eggs and sour cream and bread. i doctured all of that with some probiotic and vitamin c. i even chopped up some raw garlic for the tuna. she ate a bit and actually, went downstairs for a bit. her noise was less dry than yesterday and i think her fever went down.

i think cloey dog knows instinctively, to keep her distance from cookie. we all three did sleep together on the t.v. couch, but we didn't touch. i think that the itching might also be getting relieved. i didn't find wads of hair all over the floor this afternoon, when i returned. the vet just called to check up on cookie. what an angel! i also spoke with a local homeopath on the phone last night. he was so kind to discuss alternative treatments for free.

cookie's nose is cold again. thank the Lord! it is so hard to stress out over pets. i feel so useless at times. i do try to read up on the traditional treatments to understand the process but i prefer to supplement them with homeopathy. i am a firm believer but i am not a fanatic. i do think though, that in the case of traditional medicine, less is enough.

the vet is planning to come at the end of the week to give cookie another shot against mange. the problem is that it sometimes returns even stronger afterwards. that is very typical after treating ailments with cortisone. the cortisone kills the symptoms but doesn't treat the root cause. i will be so glad when this is finally behind us. i feel a sense of shame. you know, the stigma of having a 'mangey' dog. you conjure up thoughts of abuse and neglect. you would never imagine a dog living the good life in a villa would end up in this condition.