Survivial of the Fittest

it's 10:30 p.m. in the holy city of zefat. today is the first day of the new month of kislev. we just got back from the clan. they had a double birthday party tonight for gal's pregnant sister and 11 year old brother.

i am totally freaked out. on friday afternoon, we discovered that cookie dog was missing a large patch of hair on her lower thigh. she was also very red. as usual, when things go awry on friday afternoon, you have to wait to deal with them on sunday morning.

i put some lavender oil on the redness, but it seemed to make it worse. cookie seemed normal so i didn't worry that much. i gave both dogs a few sausages on friday night and cloey nearly choked to death on a piece of the sausage. she frantically, rolled on her back, peed all over the floor and gasped for breath. luckily, the piece of meat got dislodged. what a bit of trauma!

i took care of sahar for most of the morning on saturday. gal was exhausted so i let her nap. sahar fell asleep in the baby buggie, so i got to daven and catch up on my psalms. when he awoke, we went downstairs and played in the grass with the dogs. cookie wasn't into running around. she seemed weakened. cloey tried her best to engage cookie in a game of chase, but cookie wasn't budging. sahar stood with his hands clasped to get the dogs running, but to no avail.

we had our shabbat lunch and a friend came over with her two dogs to visit. the kids went downstairs with sahar and i got ready to walk my friend back downtown. a moment later, zvi came upstairs and handed me sahar. i simply, put him in the stroller and we took off. i got back about an hour and a half later. sahar was just getting restless.

at the end of shabbat, gal went to her friend's to study for her accounting course. zvi ordered pizza and was getting ready to watch a soccer game. fot the third time that day, it was sahar and safta zelda together, once more. gal finally came back at 11:30 p.m. sahar had already woken up and screamed relentlessly, for about half an hour. i fell asleep after 2:00 a.m.

i got up at 7:00 a.m. to shower and get ready for yoga. sahar went to his morracan safta and i called the vet. cookie was definately not well. the vet agreed to come over and i went to my yoga class. it was hard. i have been binge eating all week long and i put on about 10 pounds. this yo- yo dieting is wearing thin. i should say heavy, because i really filled out. i almost stayed home because i looked so fat, but i forced myself to get out and face the music.

i took a nasty fall on friday afternoon. i washed the floors with lots of water and moments before candlelighting, i ran to get a towel to dry them. i went crashing down on my back, breaking the fall, somewhat, with my wrist. oddly, it just started hurting this evening. i decided to go on a fruit fast for a few days before i return to the south beach diet. all i had to eat was: two bananas, one red grapefruit, a green apple and two coffees. my stomach hurt all day long. when we reached the clan, they were all busy frying up chips. i couldn't tolerate the smell from the oil.

after yoga, i went to the local super to buy some chocolate to make the birthday loolies. i found some 60% bittersweet chocolate bars. i then spent over an hour at the local gift shop and bought a couple of birthday gifts. i got a package of fuzzy socks for the sister. and i bought a ball that had gold glitter and another ball inside it, which lit up. i also bought the brother, a birthday coffee mug and put a bunch of candy inside it. sahar loved the ball and demanded that everyone hand it to him.

i bought sahar a barbie doll ball because that was the only one i could find in the local gift shop. zvi was less than pleased with my choice of balls. to compensate, i bought a care bears ball the next day in town. so now, sahar has his choice of balls to kick around.

the vet came over around noon and we decided together that cookie dog had mange. i have had zero experience with this parasitic illness, and i asked the vet if cookie was going to die. i have always thought that mange was fatal. the vet gave cookie about 4 different shots. cookie was feverish and sluggish. she also wanted to give cookie a shot of prednisone but i think we decided to hold off for awhile. the vet told me to get some antihistamine and antibiotics for cookie. i never made it over to the clinic to get the prescriptions.

i actually, was too freaked out to deal with it. not that i am really all that keen on presciption drugs. i was scared to death that i had exposed the baby to the mange. i also feared that cloey would get it. i was totally convinced that i already had it and i started to feel really itchy. i called the local homeopath to ask for healing alternatives. he reassured me that mange in humans isn't really all that bad. he also suggested using lavender oil in a base of almond oil to soothe the itching. the cream the doctor left was practically useless in stopping the itching. cookie has practically, yanked out all of her leg hair. she looks pathetic.

in order to promote good health and healing, we have to stop the itching. the homeopath told me to wait a couple of days before giving her the antibiotics. apparently, an animal breaks down with mange when his auto immune system is weak. antibiotics plays havoc with the immune system. you want to boost the immune system with good food, vitamin c and probiotics. we happen to have had some in the house because i bought them for gal, when she was on antibiotics, last year. she never opened them. i mashed some up and gave them to cookie in some sour cream.

i stripped all the furniture and threw all the coverings and sheets into the laundry. i put it all in the drier to kill the parasites. i steamed all the couches and chairs and put fresh linens on them all. it is more comfortable for cookie this way. there are large clumps of hair all over the house. i am mortified and itchy, all at the same time.

i don't have to sit for sahar tomorrow. i really don't want him on my floor until i see some improvement in cookie. i don't know what i'll do if cloey follows suit and comes down with the mange. i tried to really underplay my fears to gal. she already thinks that sahar's playing with the dogs is unhygienic. i didn't dare let on at the birthday party that the dog was sick. i fell a bit sick to my stomach with this dirty little secret. i also have to let my friend know that her dogs were exposed to this dreaded disease.