April is the cruelest month...

at least this last week of it has been. Last night Caramel started coughing up blood. We took her right over to the Vet, and they took Xrays and blood. We won't know till her blood tests come back in a for a couple of days but it looks like it's heartworm. When we first got her the rescue org told us that her heartworm would die after a year and monthly maintenance med alone would protect her which turns out, is not true. The fact that she is a Katrina rescue and from the South puts her at risk. The emergency Vet who coincidentally is from LA. too was great and patiently explained everything. He gave her hydocodone pills to supress the coughing, but last night she coughed up blood all over the house today she's OK. The treatment foe heartworm is dangerous and requires hospital stays. There may be clotting and sudden death but it's preferable to a slow, painful death from heartworms. She's young and she's strong so we are optimistic. And also cause we have to be. It's really a drag that all three of us now have illnesses.
Speaking of which, my Thurs visit to the Dr has resulted in more unanswered questions. It seem my latest blood tests are all negative which they tell me is very unlikely and highly frustrating. We had to use a new lab which my Dr. was not happy about. I will have to take new tests at a different lab. This and the uncertainty of not knowing what is going on, does not please me. But the codeine she prescribed has helped my smashed funnybone( call me Righty!) and my headaches. Now my dog and I are both on opiods. Go figure.
Torrential rains left water in the basement 2 weeks ago but apparently not enough for the gods of flooding. As I turned on the washing machine Mon, the water leaked directly out. RIP-we had to get a new one.( an energy-saving front-loader) Wed, I went to shopping for a kitchen table. (The one we have been using for the past year is my parent's folding bridge table, a present they received on their 25th anniversary- 46 years ago. Many, many Mah Jong and card games have been played on it.) I parked by the furniture store and as I was about to get out of the car, someone started banging quite violently on my window, nearly giving me a heart attack. It seems that in backing up in my tiny car, I had bumped him as he was sitting in his BMW with-the-Jersey-plates while he was swilling his designer coffee and he felt that breaking my side window with is fists would be an appropriate way expressing his rage. Words were exchanged, I tried to call a cop on my cell phone- can't really work those things, then finally, I got out of the car at which point the cowardly middle-aged Milquetoast fuck jumps away from me. I delivered him a severe tongue lashing then go into the store where the manger informs me that bully has removed his car from the spot behind me which, in fact, has been concealing the fact that it is a fire hydrant. It is 3:00, I'm in Park Slope, there are no parking spots but plenty of gridlock. It takes me 40 minutes to get home. Bad day.
But still not as bad as yesterday which started with an early morning walk, just me and my Caramelly.We were walking down the block and a man came towards us. Carrie didn't like his looks and crossed over in his direction, but she was still obviously restrained by a short leash. He, a middle-aged tough guy type jumps 10 feet in the air. I apologized cause I live on this block and also I'm nice. He screams at me, in a very aggressive manner," If I had my gun, I would shoot that fucking dog!" What is going on with all these bad-tempered middle aged men? Is it Spring fever? I swear, I'm going to start carrying Mace!