Day
7
Up
early with a mindset to get out of here but you know how that goes. It’s now 11
AM and I’m still here, obviously destined to stay in Fort Nelson for yet another
night due to a chain of events that confirm I need to be patient. The first
thing that happens is Woody leaps from the van as usual for his morning pee and
immediately starts whining. I thought he has ice in his pads but after checking
his foot and him trying to bite me, so unlike him, I ruled that out.
I
then talk to two women headed for Alaska at the gas station. They have chains
on their car and said the road from Fort St. John to here is terrible. So I
decide to investigate the possibility of getting chains for Dora. Stopping at
the auto store the guy told me that for a onetime thing costing around $200 he
would just put sand bags in the back. Apparently chains come with a whole set
of other problems that may not be good – like driving too fast and destroying a
tire. Yikes! When I return to Dora I find Woody in excruciating pain, he is
panting, whining and unable to get comfortable. I stop at IGA to get some baby
aspirins, which incidentally they are not called that anymore because we are
not suppose to give a baby an aspirin? Go figure, I always gave them to my boys
and they turned out okay. They are now called low impact aspirins and IGA did
not have them but told me to try the local pharmacy.
Again
when I return to the van, Woody is even more distressed. Back in IGA to find
out where the vet is located. Guess what? There isn’t one here. But the kind
lady told me to go see Val, the local dog groomer. Apparently she works with
the traveling vet when he comes to town, and she can probably help me. Off to
find Val.
Val
has a look at Woody and determines he has probably twisted something and that
he obviously doesn’t do pain well. Well of course not, he’s been babied all his
life. Instead of his foot it appears to be more in the shoulder area, and hopefully
not in the spine. The panting is a sure sign of pain. She explained if it were
another medical issue it would not happen this quickly – my thoughts exactly.
Her advice is to keep him as quiet as possible so that the injury can heal, and
to give him Advil, Aspirin or Ibuprofen for pain – but definitely not Tylenol.
She told me everything I was already thinking, but hearing someone else say it
is always good.
Back
to the pharmacy to pick up the low impact aspirin that look just like the
flavored baby ones. I feed Woody and find there is nothing wrong with his
appetite; he just can’t seem to get comfortable. I gave him pill #1 and did a
Reiki session on his shoulder/leg area. He is settled for a bit, until I start
feeding the other dogs and then he begins pacing again. Since I need to keep
him quiet I give him yet another aspirin and more food to distract him. This is
my sign to stay put for yet another day in Fort Nelson. Driving down a
treacherous road with a distressed dog panting and pacing does not sound smart.
Hey it could be worse, I could be stranded at a mere gas station along the way.
That reminds me of another trip when I was in fact stranded in Kansas farm
country for five days, parked at a garage waiting for a part to be delivered
from Indianapolis. The garage closed at 5 PM every day and we were locked
inside the yard for the night with huge bunny rabbits and vicious mosquitoes.
The owner was kind enough to let us plug the RV into the electricity so the air
conditioner could run. It was June and the heat and humidity were breathtaking.
So yes, it could in fact be much worse than camping in the parking lot of a
Super 8 Motel with ice cold Canadian beer at Boston’s Pizza next door.
I
met a young man in the motel parking lot that is headed to Columbus, Ohio with
his two dogs. He is driving a large truck pulling a trailer of household items.
Hopefully we will caravan tomorrow and drive 35 MPH if we have to, which is
fine. I talked to more truckers
that told me stories of pulling people out of ditches on the road to
Fort St. John. And the Greyhound buses are not driving south today if that
tells you anything about the road conditions here. The consensus is if you’re
not in a hurry wait until the plow/sand trucks can catch up. It was hammering
snow again this morning but now the sun is shining. The problem is the
temperatures are too warm creating ice under the snow. Apparently it’s supposed
to continue snowing through Sunday, SUNDAY!!! But the temperatures are
predicted to reach -20 this weekend. My intuition tells me that tomorrow is the
day to leave, even if it takes 9 hours to get to the end of the Alaska Highway,
we will make it safely but for now, more reading, writing and doing nothing.
People actually pay big money to do what I’m doing so I must remind myself to
enjoy it. J
Day
7 ends inside our Dora cocoon in the Super 8 parking lot where WiFi is
available. She now has five-50 lb. sandbags under the bed and five snuggling
canines on top the bed. Woody is resting comfortably and DoDog is sitting at my
feet barking because apparently I am occupying her designated seat and Luce
won’t let her jump up on the bed.
Poor DoDog! They are my assurance
that everything is going to be okay.
 |
| Resting Comfortably on Dora Blanket |
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