Friday, March 18, 2011

The Sarasota Redemption

I have been busy lately...and lazy lately, too.  We had to make an emergency trip to Florida, which as far as emergency trips go, Florida is not a bad place to emerge.  My wife volunteers for a basenji rescue organization, which means I volunteer by proxy.  Two basenjis didn't work out at their "forever home" and needed to go back to the foster in Florida.

When we were first made aware of the situation, we decided we would stay a few extra days and sneak in some rest and relaxation.  With only a week to make plans, we called up our friends down there who always say to come down anytime, who told us we couldn't come down then, they had guests already.  I thought that was rude, I mean, they have known their mom their whole life and have only known us a few years.  Who needs more time to catch up?  Regardless, we thought about option two, a friend of mine who loans me his vacation home down there who, without asking me, decided to stay in it himself.  So, this left us without a place to stay.  I frantically searched the internet all the next day trying to find some options without much luck, at least not in the price range of an unemployed cancer patient.  At the end of the day, we were discussing our options when we get the call that we will not be leaving the next week, we need to leave the next day.

The good news, we can stay with our friends, of whom I will now take back the comments I made in the previous paragraph.  The bad news, we literally had less than twelve hours to put everything into place.  Phone calls were made and we were able to put our plan into motion.  The next morning, I met another volunteer and received two very timid and scared basenjis.  I brought them home to the house, where they cowered in the corner of their crate.  Our oldest basenji immediately walked up and peed on their crate.  Not exactly the welcome I was hoping he would give them.  Since we had a night of driving ahead of us, I decided to let them look out the sliding glass door from their crate for a little bit while I grabbed a nap.

After waking, I put the crate in the bedroom, so they would feel a little more secure and opened the door expecting them to fly out of their confines.  After half an hour, and still no flying, I gave up.  I could get the one to eat out of my hand, but not come out of the cage.  I continued preparation until my wife returned from work.  After another agonizingly long time she was able to coax them out so we could take them to pee before our trip.  The female decided to pee in the middle of the hallway, no sense waiting until you get outside.  After a very scary trip outside (I am still not sure what was so scary out there, but they were definitely scared of something) we load up the two rescue basenjis and our two basenjis and start our fifteen hour trek.  The trip down was fairly uneventful, delivering the two rescues back to their familiar foster where they immediately got back into their old routine.  We then made the hour trip down to our friends.

After our last trip to the area, I was a little afraid it would end up the same, me curled up in a ball in pain after hurting myself again.  Luckily that didn't happen.  The trip went great.  We took the Curly Tail Mafia out for some fun (our two basenjis and our friend's shiba inu), we ate at some great places, we had lots of fun with our friends, and snuck out and had some fun on our own too.

In my cancer support group yesterday, I said that week was the first week since all this started that I didn't feel like a cancer patient.  I enjoyed myself and feel like this is starting to be behind me.  I say that as I stare down and impending scan.  I told the group I may "graduate" to the survivors group, but I am going to wait and see how bad my scanxiety is this next time.  Maybe Florida was the answer, and if my wife really loved me and cared about my well-being, she would let me move down there.  She could come too if she wants.

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