Return of the Muffin Saga, Part XIV

Muffin became a favorite of many people after we moved into the apartment. On our daily “Muffin walks” people were always stopping us to comment on the shaggy dog and pet her. This included several University of Louisville cheerleaders who lived in the complex. I told you that Muffin was a babe magnet!

When she wasn't flirting and showing off for human beings, she was doing the same for animals. In the building across from our apartment lived a TV weatherperson and his two cats. The cats were exclusively indoor cats. Muffin would sit looking at them through the sliding glass doors that led from our kitchen onto the patio and the cats would sit looking at her through the sliding glass doors that led to their patio. Many times during a Muffin walk Muffin would lead me across the courtyard and stick her nose on the glass doors of the cats while they sat on the other side of the glass preening and being, uh, cattish. The three animals never made actual physical contact, but one could tell that they were pals.

Muffin also became a favorite at her vet’s practice. All of the staff knew Muffin by name and would stop by the examining room to pet her each time she visited. By 1999, Muffin was (we estimated) about fourteen years old. She developed impacted stools about every three or four months and visited her vet, Dr. Caryl, to, uh, have them unpacked. The staff always commented on how cheerfully Muff put up with them digging around in her neither region. I once told one of the staff that that if I had shit packed in me that wouldn't come out, I’d willingly and happily allow someone to dig the stuff out, too!

The time came when I took Muffin to see Dr. Caryl, not because of shit, but because she wasn't eating and seemed lackadaisical. After a through physical exam, arrangements were made at a a larger animal hospital for Muff to have some sort of scan . Needless to say I was concerned.

A few days after the scan, Muffin and I went to see Caryl. She said that Muffin had a baseball size growth on her spleen (if I remember correctly). However, Dr. Caryl recommended against surgery due primarily to Muff’s age. She said if the tumor grew or began to cause Muffin serious problems, we could discuss the options then.

She also suggested that it probably wasn’t the tumor that was causing Muffin to be off her food and to be droopy. Dr. Caryl prescribed some vitamins and some sort of doggy tonic for Muff and, amazingly, with in a week or so she was more energetic than she had been in years!

In fact, Muffin was so bouncy that we planned to take a long driving vacation of about 700 miles at the end of the summer. That will be the subject of the next part of the Muffin Saga.

I shall publish Part XV of The Muffin Saga next Sunday.

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