07:58 – We still don’t know exactly what the problem is with Barbara’s dad. At one point yesterday they were talking about moving him to the ICU, but they decided not to, so he’s on a regular floor. They started antibiotics immediately, in case his lung infection is bacterial, but we won’t know for sure until the results of the culture come back. At this point, it appears that Dutch isn’t in any immediate danger.
We’d planned to do a Costco run and have dinner with our friends Paul and Mary yesterday. Barbara was adamant that we proceed with our plans, even if I had to go without her. But she called from the hospital around 2:30 and said she was on her way home. So we went to Costco and then out to dinner normally, and then came back home so Barbara could watch the end of the Masters golf tournament. Barbara’s going to work late this morning. She has to stop over at her parents’ apartment to pick up the checkbook and her mom, drop her mom at the hospital, and drop a couple of checks at her parents’ accountant’s office to send in with her parents’ tax returns.
All of the neighborhood dogs know that I carry dog treats when I’m walking Colin. Sophie, Kim’s 5-month-old Yorkie, learned that the first time I gave her one, and now every time we visit Kim and Sophie Sophie begs shamelessly for treats, standing with her front paws on my leg and bouncing up and down. I always give Colin his treat first, because to give Sophie hers first would offend Colin’s sense of order. He is, after all, both the senior dog and my dog.
So, yesterday, I was handing a treat to Colin, but we dropped it. Colin bent his head down to pick it up off the sidewalk, but Sophie got to the treat at the same time Colin did. She lost the struggle for the treat, of course. Colin is 15 or 20 times her weight, and her whole body is about the size of his head. But I was amazed that he didn’t even growl or show his fangs at her, even though she was literally trying to pull the treat out of Colin’s mouth. Kim was watching fearfully and probably assumed her puppy was about to be eaten. After seeing what didn’t happen, I told Kim that if she needed any evidence that Colin wouldn’t hurt Sophie she’d just gotten it in spades.
11:08 – Barbara just called to let me know she’d gotten to work. Her dad is doing better. He has pneumonia, again, but it appears to be responding to antibiotics. He’s still very confused. He told Barbara he’d been in the hospital for two days and they’d given him nothing to eat. She tried to convince him that he’d just gone in yesterday afternoon and that they were in fact feeding him, but he’s as contrary as usual. Some of his confusion may be due to the illness and some to the antibiotics they have him on. They’re moving him from intermediate care to a regular room today.