Saturday Night Dinner

Sam had told me in the morning that Buddy had quite a lump developing inside his cheek. I thought he meant the scaring from the puncture mark of the other dog’s tooth, or the swelling from the trauma. I didn’t give it a lot of thought other than that.

Around 5pm, I’m not sure exactly why now, but I looked inside Buddy’s mouth to see how the puncture mark was healing and it was pussy and swollen.

“I told you that,” said Sam.

“Oh?” I thought. “Yes, you did. But, I didn’t listen.”

I pushed on it and it immediately began to ooze puss and fluid and blood. He had a fully developed abscess. Shit! He was pretty good, he was his normal laid back self and he let me squeeze if a number of times, so I was able to squeeze more and more infection out of it. He eventually started pulling his head away, but still kind of gently.

I tried calling the vet, but they had closed for the day. I googled the other two vets close by and both were closed on Sunday. All of the inner suburban vets seemed to be closed on Sundays.

Damn! How could we let this happen? We could have taken him today, why didn’t I listen to Sam? Why am I so stupid sometimes? Or is that vague?

I held Buddy and Sam pulled his cheek back and squeezed it again and more goop came out, mostly it looked like bloody, thin, watery, infection fluid.

The only vet that was going to be open tomorrow was the (name of outer suburb) Vet where he used to go with his old owner, Jason, and where I’d taken my cat, as it turned out, when he first appeared at the door as a stray all of those years ago.

The vets have always told me that the main thing with abscesses and infection is to break the skin so as to squeeze out the infection, if you can do that you are, probably, most of the way along the healing path, which we had done.

We went to Brian’s place for dinner and ate with Charlie and Lenny, who took a mango cream cake and Phillip and Gavin who bought an enormous passion fruit cream layer cake from Costco, which was gorgeous.

Not just Sam and I on Saturday night. It is so often Sam and I and I quite like it that way. I guess I shouldn’t, I should be more social, but Sam isn’t so social either, so we kind of compatible in that sense.

It was very wet as we drove over there, all of the roads seemed to be awash with water. The rain fell down from the sky in sheets of water.

Brian cooked Beef Rendang, a curried fish dish and baked eggs and chicken soup and lots of rice, even if a few present didn’t want so much rice. All of the food was scrumptious, we ate enthusiastically. 

The cakes were fantastic, the passion fruit cake especially, it was sublime. So, if you want a fantastic cake go to Costco and get it.

Charlie and Lenny took Pebbles. Lenny asked where Buddy was when we got there, he seemed quite keen to see him.

Brian told Sam we couldn’t take Buddy as it was raining and if he was out the front, as anticipated, he’d get stinky and wet.

We’d laughed about Charlie’s “Caveman Diet” which he is trying out. You can eat what you can catch? Really? What can a poof catch in St Kilda with his bare hands? There is always some diet, there is always some exercise routine with Charlie. And cake, as would his second and third helping of cake would attest to. But, he looks good, so whatever it is that he is doing, it is working.

Phillip said he went to the gym three times a week. I nearly said to him, “What do you do there, sit in the café and drink lattes.” He looks more like he eats a cake diet.

Gavin and Phillip will be in Hanoi when we are there. They have two restaurants they want to go to. I am never that organised.

“We should catch up for a meal, or a cake,” said Gavin. “Or a cocktail.”

It had stopped raining by the time we drove home with, what remained of, the mango cake. I am sure “the diet” was the reason that Charlie didn’t want the rest of the mango cream cake home.