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Last week my subject was similar, and I talked about familiar autumn holidays. This week my topic is STILL holidays, but different ones, those perhaps less familiar. The first happened when we were on our way to the veterinarian's with Skittles and Patches for some basic check-ups, shots, and plans for surgery. The dogs really seem to like riding in the car, and we've often talked about taking them out with us for no special reason. But this time we had an appointment with one of our favorite vets at a practice we finally found. It was the night for weighing, fecal exams, rabies and parvo virus shots, and a general health exam. My husband waited to see if the vet noticed the tumor-like patches of raised skin on Skittles and what, if anything should be done about it. The vet did notice it and we set up for surgery in October. He will operate himself, and when he called me earlier this week to tell me that the tests on the dogs had all been fine, I asked about pre-surgical instructions for Skittles. He said that I would be called with directions as the date approached. I passed that information to my husband at dinner that night. Like me he is very apprehensive about a major procedure, and like me he totally adores the dogs.
On our way to the veterinarians' office we were puzzled to see nearly every car we passed by with its headlights on. It was early evening, but not dark enough to require the lights yet. What was going on? Was it a holiday of some sort? Later on as I entered Skittles' date for surgery on my calendar, I noticed that a day had been set aside to honor POW's and MIA's. GREAT! NONE DESERVE IT MORE! What was amazing was the number of vehicles having their lights on for this special day. Only a few-like us-were unlit. Perhaps they also didn't know about the special day. Another holiday was one that I actually knew about but didn't really understand at first: Rosh Hashanah. This is the Jewish New Year, and although food stores have special items for this celebration, I never really thought about it until I became friendly with a Jewish lady when I took over the editorship of a computer organization's newsletter. About the same time our home was blessed with the Internet. This included Email and also Ecards. I had asked about the appropriate greeting for Rosh Hashanah and I was told "Happy New Year" was in order. So then I went into the Email card programs I subscribe to and sure enough, there were cards to send for it. The collection also included greetings for the related holiday "Yom Kippur" which follows ten days later. I usually send my friend only the New Year's greeting, but she generally Emails me back a "thank you" for it. In high school a Jewish boy asked me to the Christmas Dance, which was the biggest dance second only to the Senior Prom. I had a good time that evening. I don't recall if Hanukkah intersected Christmas vacation that year or not. This isn't an actual "holiday" in the typical sense, but our older Shih Tzu, Skittles, is having surgery tomorrow to remove some growths from his back. At that point the largest one will be biopsied to determine its nature. Since Skittles has sort of chosen my husband as his favorite human, the man will not only bring him to the vet's tomorrow morning but stay there to be the first to see him when he comes out. Please keep us in your thoughts for our dog's speedy recovery from his operation and no recurrence of any lumps on his back. Just Mom |
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