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24 April, 2010

Going Shopping

A couple of days ago, Dianna and I had started out right at 8:00 AM. We were going to go have breakfast at Miss June's Kitchen, then we were going to Lano's Supply to look at some of the new sinks, faucets, etc., that he'd gotten in and maybe, if we had enough time, head over to Creative Tile to look for some tile for our shower and floors in the guesthouse.

On the way to June's, I was going to stop at Dr. Sheila's (Corozal Veterinary Clinic) to pick up some more thyroid tablets for Miss Blue, one of our kitties. As we pulled up beside Dr. Sheila's, we saw Christina standing outside Sheila's gate with Louie, one of her's and Brad's dogs.

Some explanation is necessary here. Protocol says that when Dr. Sheila is with a patient and you show up, unless it's absolutely life or death, you wait quietly till she's done with the current patient and Sheila has escorted them out her front gate. Then, she'll let you in to take care of whatever the problem is. If it's life and death, it's ok to yell and holler at Sheila to let her know it's an emergency.

Something to remember if you move down here. Also, don't ever you open the gate. She opens and closes the gate - always. And that's good advice for anyone's yard that has a gate. Never open it. Stand there and call for the person you want to see. You never know what kind/size/temperament of a dog might be waiting just out of sight to take a chunk out of you - or at least, to scare the bejesus out of you.
Alright. On with the story. So, Christina is standing there with Louie. As we came up to them, we realized she's holding a compress to Louie's head and it was obvious that Christina was just a tad stressed. So, "what happened", we inquired? Christina told us that a little earlier, she had left her place and took two of her dogs over to a close-by lot where she lets them run and chase balls.

Normally, not a problem. Well, this time, it was a problem. It seems there was a gentleman there chopping the lot. She didn't see him as they approached. She let the dogs loose. They saw him and immediately charged. He reacted, swinging his machete and clipping Louie on the head, just barely missing his left eye and just barely missing the left ear. But, the machete strike took a droplet-shaped hunk of skin and flesh, about an inch across and about three inches long out of Louie's skull. In fact, we could clearly see white bone when Christina removed the compress and showed us. Of course, the man chopping knew Christina and was very upset that he had chopped Louie - even though Louie was intending to essentially do the same to him. Christina got him calmed down and assured him it was her fault for not checking before letting the dogs run.

Then, she tried calling Mae and Craig to see if she could get a ride from them to take Louie to Dr. Sheila. No answer. She tried one or two other folks with the same result. Then she called a taxi. When he arrived he refused to take her and Louie as he was afraid Louie would bite him. Christina was thinking clearly enough that she even had a tarp to spread over the seat so Louie wouldn't bleed all over everything, but he wasn't going to give her the chance to use it.
Finally, Christina saw one of her neighbors coming home. He offered to take her and Louie to the Vet. That's where we entered the picture.
As we're also standing there waiting our turn, Christina was very concerned that Sheila was going to be upset with her for putting her dog in a position to get chopped. Christina also realized that Louie's injury wasn't life-threatening so she was content to wait her turn outside Sheila's gate. Pretty impressive. While we were waiting, we told Christina we'd take her and Louie back home if they needed a ride after all this.

Eventually, Sheila got done with her current patient, showed them out the gate and let all of us in together (I think because she thought we were together as a group). Anyway, she took a quick look at Louie, and immediately loaded up a syringe and gave Louie a shot. We all stood around talking. Finally, Christina asked Sheila if the shot was something to knock Louie out so she could stitch him up. Dr. Sheila said it was and Christina asked if it was ok if she left after he went to sleep and came back in an hour. That was ok too.

While we were waiting, I purchased the tablets for Blue and took care of some other business with Sheila. Then I went out to wait in the car with Dianna, as she had gone outside to have a smoke. A few minutes later, Christina came out, so we all piled in the Isuzu and we took her home.

After all this, we headed back to Miss June's to finally have our breakfast. So it goes in Belize. Your plans change in an instant. Besides, a medical emergency (even if it wasn't life-threatening) may not have been as fulfilling as a hearty breakfast, but it was a lot more exciting than looking at tile. After a very good breakfast at June's, we did make it down the street to Lano's where we saw the following sink and vanity.
Dianna's Choice for the Bathroom SinkHe's really gotten some fancy stuff in. This was a very cool sink. Kind of a floral design on the outside. Below is the vanity we chose. It has woven wood doors and looks really cool.
The Vanity For the Guest House
That was as far as we got that day. By then, it was about 11:30 AM, or so. Time to head back to home. We'll shop for tile another day. I wonder what will happen then.

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