Sunday, April 27, 2014

A new niche


2009 was a terrible time in our household, just plain grind-you-to-pulp kind of year. Sue had a soul-splattering, over-bearing job dealing with others’ money, where her only bonus was the fun 15 mile commute out to the suburbs on her speedy and shiny orange bike. Then in late spring, I was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. It was low-grade (good) but large (bad), and in my lymph node (bad), so I had to have surgery and chemo. I had only been out of vet school for a year and I suddenly had to take five months of medical leave. The cancer year is its own monster of story, for another time. But what happened during and after because of the chihuahuas, well, that’s a tale for here.

After my mastectomy, I had to be careful around the dogs and my stitches. We had at the time one large, one medium, and one small dog. But they seemed to understand right away what was going on. Wren, the tiniest, slept on my pillow, almost in my hair, like a cat, every single moment I was in bed, which was a lot.  When my hair fell out, she slept on my shoulder, curled into my hatted head.

To this day, I tend to say how Wren saved my ass by sleeping practically on me.  She anchored me.

And later, when I was healed, and zoom out three years later and we adopted Tiny Dog, I realized Tiny Dog liked being in my sweater for heat and comfort, and I liked her being there for heat and comfort too. She fit exactly where my breast used to be, and I could zip her into my vest in the winter, and she’d fall asleep, content. I also had a prosthesis to wear out in public, but at home, I did not, and wore the chihua instead.



I would never claim cancer gave me anything good.  Cancer made me believe in randomness and not fate.  But Wren, then Tiny Dog, made niches for themselves, a kind of commensalism, lovely for all of us. And when Tiny Dog is in my vest, she’s right against my heart tick ticking away, her pulse fluttering back in counterpoint.

2 comments:

  1. Our animals, canine & feline can make such a difference when the rest of the world spins out control. Anchors, indeed. Thank you for sharing.

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  2. Thank you for reading! Sorry I missed your spring comment. These little dogs are my joy and my lifeboat.

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