I am the Christmas Grinch.
I have never been a fan of the holidays. It is the season of terrible music, selfless choices only done in hopes someone will give you a S/O on social media, and severe weight gain. That being said, I don’t really scream for joy when the all festive month of December comes around.
With D being gone, I had a feeling this holiday would hit him hard. You see, while I am the Christmas Grinch, he is a Christmas elf. He loves Christmas. I only began to tolerate it for his happiness. It was a small sacrifice to make that didn’t really seem too bad. He always went out of his way to bring the Christmas cheer into our home whether it was in our tiny one-bedroom apartment or in our two-story home, he always brought the lights and happiness when I just wanted to sulk in Christmas pasts.
I was not alone in the suffering. It has become a tradition in our home to involve our pets. Every year, our pups wear some sort of Christmas-y outfit and pose in front of the tree with gifts. Hey, if I have to force a smile and tolerate All I Want for Christmas for over a month every year then these two could tolerate a couple of hours of wearing clothes and posing.
I knew D would feel lonely this year and would lack that Christmas spirit because he knew he wasn’t going to be with his tiny family. We tried to stay positive and remind each other that we are truly lucky because…
We’re going on a trip!
On a favorite rocket ship
Soaring through the skies
Little Einsteins
Don’t judge me. My nephew went through a phase singing that theme song.
Double fucking income means $$$. Double income without kids mean $$$$. I was able to practice being an adult and save enough money for our upcoming trip in January. The only downtime I had that coincided with D were Saturday mornings. Saturday morning would be D’s afternoon so we used that small time frame to plan and book things. We did this for about a month. We did our own planning throughout the week but we would have to wait until Saturday mornings to make finalize the plans.
Once we were able to agree on which tours we would go on, where we should stay, and how much money to bring, there was one thing he did ask me to do for him for the holidays. He wanted a Christmas picture – but a special picture. He wanted a moment we can look back and remember the time we were separated for Christmas but we still had each other in one way or another.
While we were wrapping Christmas up, my parents and I had to deal with an emergency that would begin the ticking cruel hands of time for our oldest pup. About 14 years ago, while living with my parents, we adopted this pupper and named him Whiskey. Whiskey had had a nasty spill so we rushed him to the emergency room the week of Christmas. We took him to Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG) and they were just an amazing staff.
We had taken my Whisky to one other local vet and it was a disaster. I should have turned right around the moment Iwas overwhelmed by the smell of cat urine and what appeared to be mold growing inside the entire basement rented vet office. The doctor, whose outwardly appearance was sloppy and unhygienic, proceeded to handle my senior dog, who was clearly in pain, without gloves and without proper bed side manner. This seemed more like a paycheck of labor rather than actually caring about the animals. Once he became rough with my dog, we immediately took Whiskey and went to VEG.
By the time we arrived at VEG, Whiskey had already been through trauma at a stranger’s hand and I felt nothing but guilt that I had bought him to that hack-job. I explained to the front desk that my dog was hurt and scared and they calmly told me to bring him in. The moment I got Whiskey through the doors, my poor pup peed all over the floor while the amazing staff carefully brought him in, reassuring me to not worry about the accident he just had.
The doctor we had was smart, caring, and patient young man. Just by the way he treated my dog showcased his love and admiration for animals. It was a long night but everyone took such good care of my big boy. They had to take an X-Ray at some point and I was able to catch a glimpse of Whiskey in the room. He was lying on the table while a tech soothed and caressed his head as she gently laid her head on his. She was comforting him to earn his trust as the other tech performed the X-Rays – and she earned trust.
We were able to bring my big boy home with some meds but we were told that due to his age, we will need to monitor his legs heavily but we had our Whiskey home. The next few months became rough but for that moment, we were able to sit in the car ride back with Whiskey in the backseat.
Organized Chaos 