RAIN!! Finally!!
It has been dry on St. Croix this year. We have had numerous brush fires on the south shore and around the entire island. It must have been last Friday when I went to work on the east end that Schuster’s farmland ¼ mile to the east of our house burned. I was gone for just over three hours. When I approached home, I could see smoldering areas on the black hillside.
Michael was home and heard sirens, but he was in “Michael land” and paid no heed. He thinks he may have smelled smoke, but was too zoned out to think about it.
Everyone’s been talking about how we need rain (among other things). And today, our cisterns are getting filled and our plants are soaking up the natural nectar they have been sorely lacking. Ahhh, relief!
I am in the house with the dogs. There is thunder and lightening all around as the sound of the rain on the roof creates a welcome roar. WAPA is out, but our solar system is powering the computers. A few of the dogs are afraid of thunder. Percy especially looks uncomfortable and I bring him in to try to comfort him, imagining what his body must feel like going through the beginnings of the chemical destruction of the cancer cells (and others) throughout. He seems to feel better when I sit with him and talk to him.
He’s panting a lot so I try to give him water. He drinks a little and pants some more. I try putting ice in the water and he slurps it down. There must be a lot of heat being produced by the processes his body is going through. I leave the office to check on the other dogs and when I return, the floor is a lake.
I use the machine washable rug to sop up the pee. I don’t scold him because I didn’t see him do it, and I sympathize with him if he can’t hold it. Minutes later, in the living room, I see him standing in the middle of the floor with urine pouring out of him.
I plead with him to let me know if he has to go out and after another few minutes he is at the door. I let him out and he pees profusely on the porch where the rainwater will carry it away.
Good Boy, Percy!
He’s licking at his leg where the tissue was removed for the biopsy. It must be itchy. There are three layers of internal sutures, but no external ones. He’s still panting a lot so I’ll get him more water. And I’ll remind him to let me know if he has to go outside to pee.