“The RoseBouquet”

Like I said last week, I’d been slowly introducing Snowflake to the halter and leash and tying it to every effort to go outside. Saturday morning she was begging to go out again and I put on the halter and leash, and attached it to the doornob, while I was going to quickly first vacuum the strip of carpet in the kitchen and then the porch. Snowflake has watched me vacuum before and seems fascinated by it, but this time when she tried to back off to a safe distance she found the leash would not let her. She grew frantic - wild! I was afraid she was going to choke herself so I reached down to grab a hold of her - instantly her claws were in my left hand, with a few scratches on the right. I quickly reached for the leash and slipped it off the doornob, knowing deeply that I’d made a huge mistake.

She was away like a flash and I was dripping blood on the floor.

I rinsed my hands under some rubbing alcohol and then managed to get bandages over all my wounds. I took two Advil and decided I might as well finish up the vacuuming and cleaning the back porch. I put on plastic gloves to keep the dirt out of my bandages. As I vacuumed the rest of that kitchen mat I thought I saw several of Snowflakes long curled toenails.

Well, I had an ad hoc meeting at my office in the afternoon; I managed to go there. During the afternoon I noticed that my left hand was really swelling up high. So when I got home and felt feverish while trying to figure out supper I began to think it might be smart to go to emergency. By Easter morning that could be a serious problem, and it would put a crimp into going to church. When I finished dishes I knew I had better go.

It took 3 hours to get finished at St. Paul’s hospital Emergency. Right, I had to have a Tetanus shot too. The doctor also gave me a Rx for a serious double whammy of antibiotics and that I had to have one that same evening. I found an all-night drugstore to get it filled.

Sunday morning I had a headache and felt so dreadfully sluggish that I decided to have my devotions in my recliner and fell asleep, deciding that I couldn’t make it to church.

I had promised my brother Tom a lunch of wild deer steak and baked potatoes, and I managed to get those started in the crock and oven while I had breakfast and another super antibiotic. Then I went back to the recliner and dozed fitfully until 1 pm. The steak smelled good, so I pulled myself together despite the headache, and packed up the food and went to Tom’s. We enjoyed the meal and I stayed long enough to watch one church service on TV and then came home for more napping - with Snowflake on my lap, who was desperate for cuddle time.

Yes, we made up about an hour after the quick little tango on Saturday morning, and we’ve been closer than ever since.