It’s been a rough week for Marabou. She’d been having breathing issues for quite a while but it got progressively worse with the hot humid weather. The vet confirmed our suspicions that she has laryngeal paralysis. Our options were surgery or wait for her to suffocate and turn blue. We went with surgery. She’s still restricted to soft food so she’s not too pleased about the fact that we’re not tossing her dog treats when we leave the house any more, but otherwise she seems to be recovering well. All the positive energy she puts out into the world may have brought us some good karma because the day before we went to see the vet I received a tax refund cheque for $3,000 more than I’d been expecting. Then – *poof* – it was gone. Easy come, easy go.
My dad and Ray’s sister both came for separate visits this past week. My dad drove up to attend a Silent Auction / Talent Show fundraising event at Nick’s school. The event was organized by one of the Grade 8 French classes with all auction items and performances done by the senior students. Nick donated two paintings for the auction and performed with the Pop Band in the talent show. Some very talented young musicians, dancers and singers – much braver than I was at that age (or now, for that matter). My dad got into a bidding war with a grade 8 student for Nick’s tiger painting (and, not surprisingly, won), while Nick’s other painting of an Orangutan and her baby went to a student. Ray’s sister was only here for a quick visit as she had a couple of appointments in Ottawa, but we should get to see a bit more of her on her next visit in July.
One thing that we’re really enjoying about being back in Canada is the hot weather. After four years with only a handful of days that could reasonably be classified as ‘hot’, we love living in shorts & sandals – and it’s not even officially summer yet! Today we all went to Westfest, a Westboro street party with lots of free entertainment. We’re on the hunt for the best veggie burger in Ottawa so we had lunch at “The Works” which has a huge selection of toppings, ranging from gourmet to…well, a little strange – peanut butter and banana, Kraft Dinner. Nick rated the burgers the best so far, knocking out Lone Star and the Britannia Beach Baha Burger Bar, but I still prefer the Baha bean burger.
Nick finished his classes this week and has three out of five exams completed, with Math and French still to go, so tomorrow will be a study day. I think we’ll all be relieved when the final projects and exams are completed and handed in and we can spend our evenings and weekends just relaxing and enjoying the summer holidays!
Choduras at Home 