More dog stuff...mostly

If Alex Rodriguez, who reportedly earns 27 million dollars per year, wished to be included on the Forbes magazine's 400 richest men in America list, he would have to have ten times as much at the end of a year as he does now. Just thought I'd mention it.

I wasn't going to blog around the block this morning; didn't feel like it. And yet, here I am. Don't know what that's all about.

I've been told that one should always be suspicious of merchandise being sold from someone's garage or the trunk of their car. The stuff is probably hot. I don't know how this relates to veterinary services, but yesterday we had Raffi and Matti, our Cocker Spaniel pups, spayed/neutered in a neighbor's garage. Doctor Dan Evers, a U.S. vet, comes to Panama on a regular basis and sets up shop in his two car and then some garage. He brings with him to Panama more equipment and veterinary support paraphernalia than we have seen in any Panamanian vet's office to date. Woowoo Charly and I got to assist in the two operations - more or less, mostly we watched - and observe close up what happens. Matti turned out to be a bit of a problem. After she was anesthetized, a portion of her underside was shaved and disinfected. Dr. Dan then made a neat incision there about two inches long. After that he began probing about inside the incision. He probed and then he probed some more. "What are you looking for?" I asked, because it seemed like a reasonable question. "The uterus" he replied. "She is so small it is difficult to find." He then began removing stuff gently from her insides, "intestines and ligaments", until he had a pile of these gooey things about the size of a fist mounded outside the incision. The word that came to my mind as it often does when seeing something unexpected was "Yikes!" Dr. Dan eventually located the uterus which was a very tiny thing indeed. He clamped it and cut it and sewed it and then stuffed the other stuff back inside the dog. After that, he quickly and neatly sewed three layers of stitches.

While Raffi was being, ah, attended to, I left to rescue our car which we had abandoned on the side of our servidumbre because the way was blocked by a dump truck there to aid in the road's repair. It was nearing five in the afternoon and past Panamanian worker's quitting time, so I guessed the route would now be unimpeded and I was right. I didn't really care that I was missing Raffi's testicle demise. Matti's ordeal had been enough for me.

Both dogs were "out of it" for quite awhile after we returned home, but they had a quiet night and seem okay, but of course subdued, this morning. We have had to put one of those goofy collars on Raffi to keep him from bothering his stitches.

Our third pup, the Golden, got a check up by Dr. Dan and was declared perfect. He's depressed this morning because the other dogs don't want to wrestle with him.

Somewhere along the day's way, we learned that one of the brothers of our friend Dalys had died. We didn't know the brother but we extend our condolences to Dalys, her immediate family and her two brothers, Alberto and Rolando that we do know. Lo siento senores.