Wiener!

Steve has been in Honduras since Tuesday and I have been busy preparing for his return tonight and our trip together to Costa Rica for 2 weeks.  I remember when our kids were young and Steve would have ministry out of town that things would always happen that would have been much easier to handle were he there to help.  Things haven't changed that much.  Since Sean, Cara, Christa and Stefani are grown and "flown the coop", we have transfered some of our nurturing and need for giving and receiving affection to our puppy dogs. ( I never thought I would be saying that and especially not out loud! ) What we receive from them is well worth all the effort, but it is much like having 5 year old twins in the house.  Not long after I dropped Steve off at the airport, Duchess began a bout of montezuma's revenge, and I began the now 3 day clean up duty.  Her favorite place to leave a deposit . . . our bed!  I have washed sheets, matress pad and matalase cover twice now.  I finally gave up last night and slept in a chair, too tired to wash and remake the bed again.  Countless trips outside did not keep her from  . . . well, you know.  Then this morning, as I sleepily through myself together and went to tether the dogs, I discovered that Barkly would not get out of his bed.  He just looked at me with the saddest eyes and layed his head back down.  I picked him up and put him on the floor to discover that he was strongly favoring one of his hind legs.  He hobbled outside with great effort and was as lathargic as I have ever seen him.  Fortunately, our friend Enrique was outside with his dogs and I got the name and number for a quality Vet that does not charge a months salary for a visit.  I was able to get him in in the afternoon and set about to try to get some of my work done.  It wasn't long before I realized that he was digressing; unwilling to drink, eat, move and even started twitching.  I began to fear that he had been stung by a jellyfish last night  while we were having our early evening romp on the beach.  So I called the Dr. and was told to bring him in immediately.  Even that became a task.  His office is in Corral Gables and I have never driven there by myself.  The freeways here are similar to LA but even more confusing. We have an 823 and an 826, an I 95 and a 195, just to mention a few. They also have names like Turnpike, and