DINNER 141: Sunday, May 21, 2006

We got up screaming this morning — we woke at 9:30am and needed to be at the theater by 10:00am to ‘strike’ the set of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. (Strike means to reset the space, removing our sets, props, costumes, and the rest to make the space ready for the next thing.) We made it there by 10:15am and strike wasn’t very difficult. Many hands — Jay, Ted, Dave, Robin, Julie, Nicki, Wendy & me — made light work, so we were able to load the plant props into Ted’s truck & trailer and get them back to the place we rented them safe and sound, much to Dave’s relief.

Then, a group of us went to PRICE HILL CHILI for some food before Wendy & I picked up Buster (or “Christopher”, as we’re considering calling him), our new dog. Well, sorta. Buster is a sweet 6-year old Dachsund who came into Wendy’s hospital ‘down‘ — paralyzed from the neck back — but otherwise sound & healthy. Apparently, this is something that ‘just happens’ to a lot of Dachsunds because they’re so low-and-long and have spinal problems. Their spinal bones calcify and can shoot into the spinal cord, like squeezing a watermelon seed between your fingers. Wherever that hits the spinal cord, from there back is ‘down‘, sometimes temporarily, sometimes forever. Sometimes they are fine after surgery and sometimes surgery is not necessary. We’re going to try to nurse him back to health with steroids and other medications, and so far it’s looking cautiously promising — only a few days after the event he can paddle his legs a bit and roll himself over. Here are some pictures, the very first we took of him.

Once we got Buster home, we realized that we had some errands to run, so we went to get a pet bed, some pee-pads, and assorted other things to make Buster’s convalescence more comfortable. On the way home, we stopped at Skyline for a three-way (for me) and a few cheese coneys (for Wendy, who temporarily suspended her very-successful diet for one day).

We all spent the evening on the couch watching television and generally enjoying not being busy.

To read more of Buster’s story, click here.