By Merlin

I owe all my loyal readers an apology. I was planning to write the second part of my life story but I came down with an unfortunate illness and have only recently recovered. I woke up one day and could hardly walk. I was like a 90 year old man with severe arthritis. I was stressed and in pain. It started with my back leg and progressed to my two front legs and it was difficult to walk and sit down and getting up was the worst of all. My Guy was in full panic mode. Neither of us slept very much and the more worried he would get the more worried I would become. A fine pair we make. Before I knew what was happening we were at the vet’s office. The vet poked and prodded every part of my body and declared “I don’t really know what is wrong with him”. Not a good sign! I had to stay in the back room all afternoon and they took some blood for testing. Ouch! The results came back and were positive in that that nothing bad showed up but didn’t show a cause for my ailment. The vet said they only had one or two cases a year like mine (just my luck) and that she had spoken to a specialist at the Animal Hospital and recommended that we go there. I didn’t like the sound of that!

I thought it was time to start help healing myself. I like to lie next to the giant crystal that is in the house because it makes me feel good and relaxes me even when I am feeling well. My favorite is lying on a patch of ground in the yard where I am surrounded by crystals. My Guy goes crazy when I lie there after a bath. I still don’t know why he gets so upset. My Guy also started giving me some pills (getting me to swallow them is another story). Within a day I started to get better and by the time I got to the hospital I was feeling a lot better. More prodding and poking and the specialist thought it was a case of Immune-Mediated Polyarthritis (IMPA).  Luckily I was feeling so much better that she decided no more action was needed for the time being. My Guy and She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO) were really happy and relieved and Sam stopped moping when I got back home. My Guy took off in the Jeep (without me) and came home with more pills. Hopefully they were for him but I had a bad feeling! They weren’t for him. Poop!

I am now back to playing and talking (some people call it barking) and feeling like my old self but we haven’t been to the park for a long time. Hopefully that will change soon.

Merlin

P.S. I was well enough for My Guy to give me an acid bath. Well, that warm soapy water feels like acid!

P.P.S. Sammy had to have a bath as well and she wasn’t even sick. Ha,ha,ha.