It has been a long time
since I have posted. Yes, I am still
alive, still at Shaar Hagai, and still surrounded by dogs.
I was having a very
difficult time for some months, and didn’t have the energy or will to
write. To start with, I was not feeling
very well. I am a very healthy person
for the most part, and as someone who spends a lot of my time doing physical
work, I tend to have various sorts of aches and pains which I try to ignore. And since every day I look in the mirror at a
face that is a little older, I also tend to believe that this kind of feelings
are a natural result of being over 25.
But I finally came to the conclusion that the way I was feeling was more
than the normal aches and pains – I was exhausted all the time, had no energy
for anything, my legs felt weak (not great when you live at the top of about 50
stairs which you have to climb many times a day), and had aches in muscles I
never realized existed. So maybe it was
time to consult the doctor…
My doctor has known me for many
years, and she knows that I do not just come around to complain. But she couldn’t find anything specific that
was wrong with me. So the agenda was to do all the various tests that she could
think of. A huge nuisance for me!
While this was going on, I
had puppies. A population explosion of
puppies! First was the litter of
podengos, and then a few weeks later, two litters of Canaans – one with six
puppies and one with ten puppies! It is
very rare for Canaans to have a litter as big as ten! And I had certainly not planned to have so
many puppies around!
Then there was a tragedy –
two of the three podengo puppies, which were adorable, sweet and happy little
things, got sick with an unidentified virus at six weeks of age and died. Although the vet and I did everything
possible, only one survived.
This was extremely
depressing for me, but also a source of tremendous stress. I had sixteen younger puppies, and I was
terrified that they would become infected also.
Of course I tried my best to disinfect everything, but a dog breeder
does not have a sterile environment…I watched those puppies like a hawk,
analyzing anything that was even slightly out of the ordinary.
To my great relief and joy,
the Canaan pups did not catch the strange
disease, and grew rapidly.
Sixteen puppies, as you can
imagine, is a huge amount of work. And a number of these puppies were destined
for new homes abroad, which meant they would have to be with me to a minimum
age of three to four months, and some for longer. This meant that in addition to the usual work
of raising a litter, I had to start taking all these puppies out in the car to
see new places and meet new people, teach them to walk on a leash, and some
basic proper behavior, and all the other things that it is necessary to do with
a growing puppy so that it will be happy and well adjusted. Considering my “normal” state of exhaustion,
this all required superhuman efforts.
But finally, most of the
puppies were off to their new homes, where, to my great satisfaction, they
settled in and adjusted well, and life became a bit easier around here.
While all of this was going
on, of course we had a little war in Israel….True, sadly, that this is not a
very rare event, but it certainly did not help, especially when a few of the
young people that helped me out sometimes were called up for army duty. This was much more disturbing than the few
bombs that were blown up over our heads…
And of course, the usual
problems of not enough work (and with the war, even less), not enough money…
So I did not do any writing.
Finally, in August, I had a
few days off, to go to the World Dog Show in Finland
On the way back, the airline
I was flying with apparently decided that they could save on service if they
froze us into suspended animation. I was
prepared for the normal cold on the flight, I was wearing a jacket – but this
cold was really something I not expecting!
And of course, there were about three blankets available on the flight
for two hundred or so passengers, and I was not one of the lucky ones…By the
time I got home, not only was I exhausted, but coughing, sore throat,
sneezing….I fell into bed and other than getting up every now and then to take
care of the dogs, I stayed there for about ten days.
Finally deciding that maybe
this was a bit exaggerated, and maybe I should really see the doctor, before I
died of pneumonia and left my dogs all orphans, I dragged myself to the
doctor’s office. She did not immediately
pack me off to the emergency ward, she prescribed some antibiotics and sent me
home.
And it worked!!!! Maybe all
I had needed for the last six months was a course of antibiotics! Finally, after ten days of treatment, one day
I woke up feeling human again! Antibiotics
are actually a good thing! Maybe if I
had taken them when I started feeling poorly, I could have avoided all this…but
I am afraid that in future my behavior, which is a very well established habit
pattern, will be the same…
So I still have the normal
aches and pains, still have plenty of things to do around here, still have no
money and plenty of debts – but this is what I am used to coping with. So here I am again!
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