Hello everyone – long time, no post. With Facilitate Your User completely posted, I haven’t been updating anything weekly. I wish I had a new story to post, but sadly that is not the case. Today’s picture is of Newton. I put this picture as the wallpaper on my phone recently and it cropped it nicely. Newton really loves sitting in this window. The red in the background is the japanese maple outside. All the leaves were gone less than two days later. This was sort of that “last hoorah” for foliage and flowers.
On the writing front, I sent my Reaping Covetous manuscript to the editor yesterday for its first round. I believe this one is a content editing. This is my first time through all of this so I’m not entirely certain what all that entails but think it is probably self explanatory. The editor has 3 weeks to return it and then I look over her suggestions, change what I want and send it back for a line editing. Again, the editor has 3 weeks to return it to me and same process again. It goes for a third and final time. After that I need to get a different person to proofread it. I still need to look into getting a book cover, downloading the formatting software and how to get it uploaded to book selling sites. Sigh . . . still lots to do and I’m assuming a big learning curve as well. My hope (fingers silently crossed) is that I can get the first book out at the end of winter or early spring of 2021. The second book is already basically written and I have a January date for it to go out for its first editing process. So much to do . . . well, you know the rest of the saying.
On the veterinary front, we have still been very busy. Last week I euthanized the second police dog of my eighteen year career. This time around, I knew a little more what to expect, but they are still emotionally draining. For those of you whom don’t know, police dogs are considered officers and when one of them is euthanized, it’s a very big deal. The dog’s arrive with a police escort – lights flashing and usually at least 10 cars long. Our parking lot is packed with policeman in their dress blues. When the dog has passed, they gather in the room, drape an American flag over the dog and carry them out. Then they leave in the same caravan, lights flashing on their way to the funeral home for cremation of their fallen canine officer. I’ve seen a lot of men cry in my career. I don’t know why, and I don’t want for this to sound sexist, but it is almost always more difficult, seeing men verses women cry. I always tell them it’s okay. That if there is anyone they can cry around regarding the loss of their pet, it’s me. Seeing normally rock steady police officers with tears running down their faces is difficult. I cried right along with them and when they left, the clinic was silent as a tomb, all of us standing by the windows as the caravan passed us by.
Sometimes, life is hard. Right now it’s harder than ever. Even the things that are supposed to bring us joy. The holidays that are supposed to be events we look forward too, are more stressful than usual. Should you gather or shouldn’t you. And if you do, how can you keep everyone as safe as possible. This year, I had Thanksgiving at my house. My older Aunt and Uncle decided not to come and I totally understood. My sister, her husband, their two kids and my mom and dad came over. My parents see my sister, brother-in-law and my niece and nephew almost daily so I kind of think of the six of them as “one unit”. Everyone wore masks when we couldn’t be separated. I ate at a different end of the kitchen than them and then we played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. It’s a good game for social distancing as I stayed on one end of the living room and they all stayed on the other. After they left, I went through the house spraying everything down with Lysol. We tried to be as safe as possible while still trying to enjoy each others company. Not sure if we were right or wrong, but that was our compromise this Thanksgiving. I’m guessing we’ll do something similar for Christmas but I suppose time will tell.
On that note, I’ll sign off. As always, I’m wishing you all well. Stay healthy – both physically and mentally. Hopefully a vaccine is on the way. We all have to dig in and hold on for the next few months. It’ll be a long winter, but we can do it!
MJ May
veterinarian and fiction writer 