Thanksgiving and Siouxsie

 Well it has been a really distressing weekend, but our week was pretty good.  Evie and I were off from work and school so we got some much needed time away from virtual learning and screens.  Unfortunately, our week was made a little less nice in that both dogs came down with what we thought was kennel cough (and it may very well be) but has turned much more serious.  More on that later but here are the pathetic pooches as of earlier this week.

It was quickly apparent that Siouxsie had the worse case and Evie, who has recently decided she wants to be a vet, was a good nurse to her.

By Wednesday, Edison was mostly better but Siouxsie was very puny Tuesday night and so she started a new kind of antibiotic on Wednesday.

Oh, and on Wednesday, when I came out of my bedroom, Evie said, "Mama.  I have something to show you."  She led me to her bedroom where she showed me the little trinket box we use whenever she loses a tooth.  I thought she was going to tell me she broke it, but lo and behold, there was a molar in there!  She pulled her molar out all by herself at 6:30 in the morning!  I had no idea it was THAT loose.

Wednesday night we played Jackbox with Grammy, Aunt Jill, Aunt Madi, and Uncle Eric.  Evie had a good time seeing them and we enjoyed making each other laugh.

Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving.  Evie helped me earlier in the week by making the cornbread.

Thanksgiving morning, she helped me make the sweet potato casserole by peeling the potatoes out of their "jackets" as Grandma Jeanne used to call them.

There were parts of this task she wasn't so keen on.

She was really proud to have helped and was very sweet to let me reminisce with her about the times I used to help Grandma Jeanne get ready for Thanksgiving lunch.  This is our first Thanksgiving without her, and I definitely missed her while I was cooking.

We had an outdoor lunch with Granna, Grannadaddy, Kathy, and Rickie and I would say we did well to respect the distancing needed to pull such a thing off successfully.

Evie told me that morning I'm excited about today! I get to eat a bunch of good food, and we're closer to the end of the year which means we're closer to a vaccine. And that means I'm closer to getting to play with my friends in person. And I'm glad we have FaceTime so I can still play with my cousins and my friends.

It hadn't even occurred to me that she would be excited about Thanksgiving.  I guess from my perspective, there wasn't as much to look forward to this year as there usually is.  I usually go to church with my Dad, and then we go to our church for a potluck lunch, and then we go to my Mom's side of the family for dinner.  This year, everything was pared down to a simple lunch on the deck.  But of course, my little bright spot of joy, Evie was excited, and even sees beyond the implications of one special day and looks forward to the things that are good to come afterwards.

Now the story gets a little sad because Friday I could tell that Siouxsie wasn't doing very well.  I called the vet and brought her in and her temperature was 105 (101 is normal for dogs) and she was struggling to breathe.  We ended up being told that it was possible that Siouxsie won't make it...  That was really hard to hear and still hard to deal with.  She was being sent from our regular vet to an emergency vet for the weekend so I stopped by the house first for Evie to come give her a hug in case it was the last time she would get to hug her.  That was really hard, to watch Evie start bawling as she walked away from the car.

I dropped Siouxsie off at the hospital and so far she is hanging in.  As of this afternoon, her temperature was back to normal, but now tonight, it's fluctuating again and she's having lower O2 stats and higher respiratory rate...  So I'm not sure we're going to make it.