Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Unbeknownst to Me
My dog has a dent in her head about two inches long and an inch wide and I never saw it before the vet pointed it out this morning.
“She has partial facial paralysis,” he said, adding that was why her left eye was red and oozing. She couldn’t completely close her eye so it was dry and irritated. The facial paralysis meant that the unused muscle on the left side of her face had atrophied, hence the dent.
I’ve lived with this dog for 14 years. She lies near me pretty much wherever I am. I talk to her, I pet her beautiful head, I hold her face in my hands. I never saw her dent.
Is this how it happens?
You think everything is fine, life is okay, adequate, maybe not spectacular, but fine, and you meet up with someone who hasn’t seen you for a long time and they right away notice the massive dent in your head?
I’m afraid to go out.
5 Comments on “Unbeknownst to Me”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
So sorry to hear about your lovely companion, hope all resolves itself.
YOUR DOG: I sure hope that the vet offered some sort of solution!
‘DENTS’ IN GENERAL: Yes, I imagine that we all have them, in some way, shape or form:)
Oh dear, that is tough. But she does feel better with you if she stays so close to you at home.
Oh no! How does a dent happen?! Poor baby.
And I’m brooding more about a bit of rot on my back door jamb than whether or not I’ll live to see another summer. We always worry about the wrong stuff.