By AMY SHANKLAND
Sandwiched
You all know that after a couple of serious, heavy columns, inevitably a humorous one comes along. It’s that time!
I realize that most of us are not just taking care of our human families and parents in the sandwich generation. Many of us take care of pets as well. In our family, we have five critters – two cats and three dogs. Yep, we’re that kind of crazy.
My first story involves our older outdoor cat, Princess (don’t worry – she has a deluxe heated cat house that make other felines jealous.) A few weeks ago we realized her fur had become one big matted mess all around and in front of her torso. This can be quite painful and even life-threatening, so we asked a groomer friend of ours to come shave her one evening last week.
I bought some hemp treats and gave them to Princess hoping they would calm her down for the procedure. Nope. She screeched and howled for 45 minutes, her heart hammering in her chest. Finally my husband John said “Enough!” halfway through. We’ve scheduled her to be sedated and shaved next week at the vet.
In the meantime, however, she was looking terrible. I was convinced the neighbors would think we were neglecting her. I bought a “comfort shirt” online and managed to put it on her last Sunday. It’s a gray camouflage that actually matches her fur and looks kind of cute.
We also had a scare on that same day. Our 13-year-old dog, Loki, was barely able to move that morning as we prepared to have Mother’s Day brunch at Ginger’s. I was seriously nervous about leaving her, but reminded myself that she had just seen the vet the previous Friday and was given a clean bill of health. Maybe the shots and cold, rainy day were making her sore.
When we returned, she wasn’t any better. My youngest son Jacob, who has always been close to Loki, was scared, and so was I. I took a nap that afternoon (having walked a half marathon the day before) and prayed to God that both she and Princess would be okay.
When I woke up, the rain had finally stopped, so I let all three dogs out. Something made me stop and look at Loki. Let’s just say I witnessed a massive evacuation! As soon as she was done, she instantly began to move around better and perked up.
I quickly realized that she probably hadn’t done “number two” since the previous afternoon, as the rain had started that Saturday evening and the dogs didn’t want to linger outside.
Seeing our oldest two animals looking and feeling better Sunday evening lightened my heart and gave me an additional Mother’s Day blessing. It’s incredible how much we worry not just about our human family members, but our animal ones as well. I was grateful that God answered my prayers!