Friends Are Everything

I received a surprise in my email this past week - a message from someone who reads my blog asking where I'd been! I didn't know I had any readers who cared enough to ask. But now here I am, back from fighting the latest round of cancer. And I have to tell you, it was borne home to me through this battle just how important good friends are.
My dog Nestle is part border collie, so even though he is now 10, he still requires a good bout of regular daily exercise. My most excellent friend and roommate Judy saw to his exercise while I was in and out of various hospitals. When I was home, she not only saw to my care, she continued to exercise Nestle. I don't think any of us would have made it through this with any shred of sanity intact without her.
So that led me to think about people who don't have such an immediate dependable support system. What happens to their pets if they are whisked off to the emergency room in the middle of the night?
I am lucky enough to also have a brother living nearby, and had it been necessary, he would have taken my dog into his home. But have you thought about this? The single individuals among you out there might want to have a plan for such an eventuality, one you keep up to date. In my case, Judy even brought Nestle to visit me in a Seattle hospital (they have regulations in place to accept canine visitors), which helped cheer my day. The whole experience has set back Nestle's tenuous self-confidence. . . now, if we visit a medical establishment, which I still have to do with some frequency, and he is left in the car, he gets a little wild with the need to tear things up to calm his nerves. He's obviously concerned that I will be disappearing again, so it's going to take some understanding and desensitizing till he can once again be calm in the car.
I know I'm sort of wandering from subject to subject here, but the overall message is that Nestle had someone who loved him to look after him when I couldn't. Please make sure that your own dog has the same support system. . . just in case.
I will try to post more regularly now that I am back working at my desk. And if any of you out there have any questions about anything I write here, please feel free to contact me. Out of necessity, I have a lot of fairly unique experience with dealing with dogs and the medical establishment simultaneously.