Reunion

Boy, this was a late walk.  I just got back -- Banks and I walked all the way to the Home Depot on I-35, circled back home, and I dropped him off just short of an hour, then did a few laps around the St. Ed's track, just now returning home.  The reason I started so late?  That cold I so optimistically predicted would be over by Tuesday seems to actually be a prolonged allergy attack.  I came home from work and after dinner went straight to bed, setting the alarm for 7:45 PM.  I'm still coughing, but now it's that yucky, unproductive hacking which tells you it's time to pull out the Mucinex.  Jackson's eyes are burning and running; we seem to get affected at the same time, but with different symptoms.

But enough about me.  This is about Banks.  The vet finally called around 6:00 last night.  He thinks Banks has a touch of arthritis (my suspicion as well), centered in his "wrist" -- he likened it to Carpel Tunnel Syndrome in humans.  He also said -- and this is one of the things I love about my vet -- "I could take an x-ray and charge you $85, but I don't think it would change my diagnosis."  So he prescribed some non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs to be given for 10 days, and after that as needed. He also assured me that he didn't think our five miles a day was necessarily overdoing it -- this was about arthritis, not strained muscles -- but shortening Banks' walks right now is more about the heat than anything else.

Then he said, ominously, "We had to give old Banks a tranquilizer shot."  Confirming my worst fears, he said that once in the holding pen, Banks went crazy, barking and throwing himself against the walls.  Oh, God. I knew it.  How could this NOT bring up the memory of his drop-off at the pound?  When I think about what must have been going through his brain -- no more mom and Jackson, no more walks at the lake, no more snuggling on the couch while watching "Top Chef" -- okay, his brain is not that sophisticated, I get it, but I have no doubt that for the long day he spent there, he thought life as he knew it was over.  I couldn't get to the vet's fast enough.

He was still a little loopy when the attendant walked him out, but if I was expecting an emotional, grateful reunion -- no.  He wagged his tail almost involuntarily when he saw me, and walked over to me at my urging, but kept his eyes averted and took on a regal, aloof countenance.  He warmed up a little after we got home, but did not reach full Banks-ness until this morning. 

Right now he's sleeping on his favorite green velvet chair, happily tired after his walk, and, I can only hope, having already forgotten yesterday's trauma.