Our Dayhome
Friday evening, when I picked up my girls, I received the worst possible news. The condo board for the complex where our dayhome is located - decided to shut down all small businesses in the complex. Now, on very short notice, we are without a dayhome. It was going to be with one week's notice, but she begged and pleaded and managed to secure an extra week so we could find alternate arrangements.
This angers me so deeply for so many reasons. The reason the board gives is one of liability - particularly after the toddler death in McKenzie Towne last year that has been recently ruled a homicide. Despite our dayhome being highly insured - the board isn't willing to risk any liability as a result of a home business.
So now, I am tasked with finding a new dayhome on very short notice. And I have to replace the irreplaceable. How do I find someone who has a degree in child studies, runs a preschool program for the children, and is willing to feed my children vegetarian meals? More important - how do I replace the friends my kids have made there? They love the dayhome providers children to the point where, when asked, they will call them their brother and sister. I know there will be playdates. But neither us nor our dayhome lady know how to break it to the kids.
It is devastating.
This being said - today, on my long commute into the city, I did have a brilliant idea that I proposed to her...this could turn into an interesting adventure if she's up for it. I'll post more later. I don't want to get my hopes up to high until we can look into logistics a bit more.
I want to say thank you to everyone who reached out to me on Twitter over the weekend. Your comments and suggestions were very helpful. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart - thank you.
and then there was the dog...
We have been battling allergy issues with Cali (aka Allergyhound) for years. She was a yellow lab/corgi cross and we rescued her just a few weeks before finding out I was pregnant with the twins. Soon after we got her - we discovered she had deep rooted issues with children. Fun combo. And she was allergic to EVERYTHING. Food. Environment. EVERYTHING. She would gnaw her paws and scratch her face. We were at our wits end and were working on finding a maintenance plan to bring her some relief. She was an old dog and we wanted her to be comfortable.
And then she started having major accidents in the house. We chalked it up the new medications. But over the past month the accidents became more frequent. We started living in a barricaded home...all of the carpeted areas were blocked off and event he girls got used to entering the living room by climbing over the arm of the sofa or the ottoman blocking the kitchen door.
We were prisoners in our own home because of pee.
Friday, after we got home and were emotionally drained from the dayhome announcement...we found she had had another accident - this one was thank fully on a pee pad we left out for her...and it was like brown sludge. Then she had another accident that had blood in it. Something was really wrong and I had this feeling of deja-vu. We had dogsat a dog with bladder stones about 6 years ago who went through the same thing.
Luckily, we had an allergy checkup scheduled for Saturday. I let the girls walk her over to the vet because I had an ominous feeling about how it was going to turn out. Plus - I think Cali knew too...it took us 40 mins to walk 5 blocks and she was letting the girls pet her and kiss her the whole way.
Once at the vet, she checked her over and, when I mentioned the accidents, the vet looked more closely at her bladder and had xrays done.
Sure enough. She had large bladder stones.
Cali has been a dear friend in our family for the past 4.5 years...but we couldn't bring ourselves to have her suffer anymore. She is now at peace but it was still such a difficult decision to make. Almost as hard as trying to get the girls to understand that we only have one dog now.
So, if the tone of my posts seems a little dark this week - now you'll understand.
