Lumpy Gari

A swarm of vets/vet students invaded my pool

Last Tuesday Melly felt a strange lump in my side while we were swimming. The lump was about as big as a golf ball and positioned just where my right hind leg joins my body. I think that part of me is called my “flank” but I’m not sure. Melly shot an email out to Dr. Hoppes, my vet at Texas A&M University in College Station, and asked her about it. She said she was coming to Austin on Thursday anyway so why not drop in and check it out. (This story has a horrible surprise ending so be sure to keep reading.)

Some of the vets and students were the same as last time but some were new. And there was one extra. This sets my people-in-the-pool-with-capybara record up to 9! (That includes Melly.) An impressive quantity since my pool is really not very big.

Who has the longer (and cuter) nose?

Really? I won't tell if you won't tell!

Hand the lettuce over slowly and no one gets hurt...

Visiting vets aren't all bad

While they were swimming with me, they all got to feel my new lump. I was rather proud of it. It’s a very precocious lump, having only come into this world (me actually) sometime after my abscess removal surgery. And it wasn’t even noticeable the last time Dr. Hoppes came out. But this time everyone got to feel it and ou and aw over it and marvel at how compact and hard it felt. I think it felt a lot like a golf ball but without all the little divots.

As great as my lump, whom I’ve named Napoleon, was, Dr. Hoppes said that I had to go into the clinic to get a needle biopsy and have a cytologist look at it. She and Melly decided to take me in the very next day, Friday July 29th, a day that will live in infamy.

I love Rick but not his driving

Given the short notice and how well I’ve been doing on my car rides lately, we decided to take Melly’s Prius. I really, really, really wanted my Rick to go because he is my favorite person in the entire world. Of course Melly had to go because she is the one who loves me the most and she has to pay all the bills and make all the important medical decisions. And then we decided to have Sheldon go with us because we need someone to do things and go places, Rick is disabled so he can’t carry anything or run quick errands and Melly won’t leave my side while I’m in the hospital. That meant three humans and one capybara plus Rick’s walker and all of my stuff including my favorite capybara bed and my crate all in one small Prius. That didn’t all fit so we decided that Shelly would have to drive his car, a black Prius as opposed to Melly’s red one.

It was a beautiful, if very hot, day

See that black car on the road behind us? That is Sheldon. I kept my eye out the back window (part of the time) to make sure we didn’t lose him.

Cute clouds and round bales

Tropical storm Dan promised to bring us some rain but instead just sent us some really cute clouds for a day. The 120 mile drive to College Station from our house has lots of pretty scenery and almost no town or city driving.

Are we there yet?

My training drives are never anywhere near that long and I was getting pretty tired of climbing all over Melly and biting Rick’s shoulder by the time we reached College Station.

A quick physical in the exam room

The exam room was pretty crowded with all the people and stuff, including Rick’s walker, so Sheldon watched through the window while they gave me a quick physical. They’d all been feeling me up just the day before so not much was necessary.

At this point I still thought Dr. Hoppes was my friend

In a way it was nice that I already knew everyone at the vet hospital. They all seemed like my friends.

Hey! That hurt!

Before I knew what was happening, someone stuck a needle in my butt! I was not happy. Ugh. My head was spinning. The world didn’t make any sense. I tried to stay awake, tried to stay sitting up but…

The next part of this story happens while I was asleep. That’s what they call it, asleep! I can tell you it is nothing like real sleep, so warm and restful and full of dreams of swimming and grass. No, this sleep is nothing, NOTHING like that. Anyway, Melly’s going to have to tell the next part of the story. I think I’ll let her do that tomorrow since this post is too long. Humm. I guess that will have to be the surprise ending I mentioned at the beginning. It surprised even me!