a week of extremes

This is Wrigley. I took this picture from the Humane Society website, and they had named her Macy. Her cage now has an "adopted" sign on it, and we pick her up on Saturday. Yesterday S. spent more than an hour digging out Belly's old crate from the very secure spot in the waaaaaaaaaaaaay back of the closet that he'd put it when I moved in. Priorities, he was thinking. We're not gonna need this thing any time soon, if ever.

Mulder's not doing well, either, people. I'm carrying around so much guilt about her that I didn't even want to write about her. But I have to. I had a bit of a breakdown on Saturday night, feeling like Mulder got lost in the shuffle of Scully and now she's gonna get lost in the shuffle of Wrigley and I was always yelling at her and now that she's sick I'm being so nice to her. What a goddamn hypocrite I am. Much of what ails her is likely due to her age: 14 1/2. She's like a little old lady who won't eat and is drinking too much water and is likely at the beginning of kidney failure.

On Thursday while Scully was in surgery and we sat in the "sad room" at the vet's office, we alternated between reminiscing about Scully and thinking up funny names for the boy dog we wanted to adopt right away. I love the name Claudius because then we could call him Claude and Clodhopper and we could begin a whole bunch of funny sentences with "I, Claudius...do believe my sister stinks." When we'd catch ourselves laughing, we'd remember why we were there, and we'd feel so much guilt, like we were replacing Scully before we even said goodbye to her. Then on Saturday night after we'd picked out Wrigley--the FEMALE dog we wanted to adopt right away--I was feeling so much guilt for Annabelle, like I was somehow replacing her. I wanted to try to control how much I love Wrigley because I don't ever want Annabelle to feel like she's not my number 1 girl. But of course I can't do that.

I take Mulder in this morning for an ultrasound for her kidneys. That poor little beagle.

And for the record, this is the first winter break that I can honestly say involved very little work.