November 19 – “Wait. What wormage was within?”

Well, we couldn’t put it off any longer.  Here it is, the end of November, and what did we find ourselves doing yesterday?  Mowing the grass.  Oh, and working to clean out flowerbeds.  I’m hoping this will be the last mowing event of the year, but I’m not holding my breath.  After all, we do live in a tropical island paradise. 

We did run into a bit of a crisis during our work.  While I mowed and edged Chris did her typical poop patrol run.  Yep, anytime we have grandkids coming over, she heads to the back yard with gloves and an old WalMart bag and does her best to clear out all the accumulated dog poop.  Not a particularly glamorous job, but as she says, someone’s gotta do it.  We can’t have our little ones stepping in piles of poop and bringing it back into the house with them. 

But here’s the thing.  In one of her poop grabs she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.  Could it really be?  Forced to investigate, she opened her hand for a closer look.  Sure enough, the poop was not alone.  It was moving.  To her credit, I guess her nursing instincts kicked in.  She got an old prescription jar and meticulously carved out a stool sample, replete with wormage.  She even brought it out to show me, so I could join her in experiencing this marvel of anatomical discharge.  It was rather disconcerting. 

Now we have been noticing over the last week or so that Fritz has not looked himself.  Combining that with the relative size of the poop pile, Chris discerned that he must be the carrier of the offending parasites.  Since I was still engrossed (and now, even more than ever) in edging the front yard, she called the vet to see what his recommendation was.  He was, of course, quite impressed with the knowledge that we had some of the critters captured and ready for transport.  We were instructed to bring them in for testing, and Fritz was issued an appointment for Monday morning.  Sigh.  There goes a chunk of Christmas money … (Aren’t you glad I didn’t continue that thought to include any appropriate – or inappropriate – allusions?).

Psalms 3:5 says, “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.”

Father, would you help old Fritz get through the next few days so we can get him looked at on Monday?  Amen.