Monday, May 26, 2008

Doggie surgery

Our old blonde cocker spaniel Baillie had surgery on Thursday for stones in her bladder that were causing her to be incontinent and listless. There were four, about the size of Hershey Kisses, or maybe a penny.
http://www.cricketsworld.com/stones.jpg
She is recovering well and, at times, is even peppy again. Baillie is taking her medicine willingly with it hidden in a glob of peanut butter! (and Cisco gets a taste of peanut butter at the same time)

I'm glad she'll be feeling better for the coming graduation weekend when the two grand-puppies will be arriving with her older brothers.

~~~~~~~~~
And this reminds me of Shel Silverstein's poem about the peanut butter sandwich:

Peanut-Butter Sandwich

    by Shel Silverstein (1932-1999)

I’ll sing you a story of a silly young king
Who played with the world at the end of a string,
But he only loved one single thing --
And that was just a peanut-butter sandwich.

His scepter and his royal gowns,
His regal throne and golden crowns
Were brown and sticky from the mounds
And drippings from each peanut-butter sandwich.

His subjects all were silly fools
For he had passed a royal rule
That all that they could learn in school
Was how to make a peanut-butter sandwich.

He would not eat his sovereign steak,
He scorned his soup and kingly cake,
And told his courtly cook to bake
An extra-sticky peanut-butter sandwich.

And then one day he took a bite
And started chewing with delight,
But found his mouth was stuck quite tight
From that last bite of peanut-butter sandwich.

His brother pulled, his sister pried,
The wizard pushed, his mother cried,
“My boy’s committed suicide
From eating his last peanut-butter sandwich!”

The dentist came, and the royal doc.
The royal plumber banged and knocked,
But still those jaws stayed tightly locked.
Oh darn that sticky peanut-butter sandwich!

The carpenter, he tried with pliers,
The telephone man tried with wires,
The firemen, they tried with fire,
But couldn’t melt that peanut-butter sandwich.

With ropes and pulleys, drills and coil,
With steam and lubricating oil --
For twenty years of tears and toil --
They fought that awful peanut-butter sandwich.

Then all his royal subjects came.
They hooked his jaws with grapplin’ chains
And pulled both ways with might and main
Against that stubborn peanut-butter sandwich.

Each man and woman, girl and boy
Put down their ploughs and pots and toys
And pulled until kerack! Oh, joy --
They broke right through that peanut-butter sandwich.

A puff of dust, a screech, a squeak --
The king’s jaw opened with a creak.
And then in voice so faint and weak --
The first words that they heard him speak
Were, “How about a peanut-butter sandwich?”

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Prayers for a quick and peaceful recovery!

Rev SS said...

So glad Baillie is recovering well and taking her medicine like a good girl!

Lori said...

My son says he would have stored the peanut butter for a really really long time till it was stale and awful tasting. Then feed it to the king who would say "Ewwww, I never knew peanut butter sandwiches could taste so bad. I hate them now!".

Good wishes of healing for Baillie.

Diane M. Roth said...

prayers for your puppy dog!

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

Delightful poem.

Prayers for Baillie. My dog Smokey sends slurps. He's convinced it helps.

Barbara B. said...

adding my prayers for Baillie!

Fran said...

Sending love and prayers for Baillie and for you all!!!

And with so much going on!

BooCat said...

Booand Doc send little kitten prayers and I send little old cat lady prayers for Baillie's quick recovery. Those stones really looked wicked!

Anonymous said...

I hope puppy recovers quickly.

My daughter always loved Shel Silverstein.

Episcopollyanna said...

Yikes! Hope she's taking all her meds okay. That's really painful. We had a cat who struggled for years with urinary crystals but nothing like those - ouch! Sending healing vibes to Bailie.