Winter, Part 2 (56/365/2023)

by The Philosophical Fish

We oopsed and hadn’t turned off the water to the outside tap and yesterday’s below freezing temperatures split the brass fitting and sprayed a small bush for a while before we realized it was happening.

But it left the bush decorated with a pretty spectacle of icicles, that were made even prettier when it snowed today.

Winter does make things look pretty.

We went to visit Gizmo today, and he was a little less perky than yesterday, but still happy to see us. Dr. McDonald told us that we should think about taking him home tomorrow or Monday. I admitted to having significant anxiety over it….I can’t help but worry that he won’t do well, but she says that they have reached the level that they have done everything medical for him and that we are getting to the emotional part, the part where his mental health will be better at home, and we need to spend what time he has left with him….which is to say that he probably doesn’t have long.

So we came home and adjusted his cage to make it smaller and safer for him, bought a little heating disc, padded the bottom of his cage, made him a little incubator to use when he needs some extra oxygen. We still need to rent an oxygen concentrator for it, and pick up some dishes to clip on the sides of his cage now that the bottom is above where the existing dishes are permanently located.

Maybe he comes home tomorrow, maybe Monday, depends on being able to find an O2 machine and it’s the weekend.

Either way, I’ll be trying to figure out how to be home a bit more, leave work a bit earlier and get home, then work a bit later….and such…to be able to monitor and care for him.

I am trying hard to not be sad that he’s coming home for an end, but happy that we can he an be here with us in familiar surroundings and with the people he’s lived with for the past 30+ years.

😢

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