To all the furrbutts on Prednisone....I give to you my sympathies.  No one
understands better than I the ickieness of this necessary evil.  I am a
severe asthmatic....who has been undermined by the recent spring weather and
pollen count.  The other night I could no longer stand the lack of oxygen,
so my husband calls 911.  Within fifteen minutes I was on a stretcher and
being hauled out my front door.  And let me tell you, you have never seen 3
more pathetic sad furry faces.  After being put back into their cage,
because of all the comotion, they all ran to the end nearest the front door
(where I was being taken out) and gave me these pitifull little looks.  Just
as they were wheeling me out, I held one hand up the cage to where Gypsy was
standing...and he gave me a little farewell lick.  It was truly the most
touching thing I have seen in a while.  My mother said, when they took me
away, and my husband left right afterwards, that the guys just ran back in
forth in their cage and dooked and generally acted "odd"...so she let them
out.  At which time they went right for the front door and layed down and
proceeded to "wait for me"....
 
About five hours later when I got home from the ER....I was met at the door
with dooking, ferret kisses and tounge baths, to the likes of which I have
never seen before.  Gypsy gave me this look as if to say "Mamma!  We thought
they were going to take you away and never bring you back!" Even nippy
Shandy laid down in my arms for her neck to be scritched and scratched.  I
even thought I saw a little smile on her face.  She was probably thinking,
"Yeah, so I like biting you on the tops of your feet, doesn't mean I dont
miss you when your gone."
 
I have never felt so loved and appreciated in all my life.  Who needs a dog
to come home to when you could have all of this?  Good kisses, less slober
and no barking!
 
And having this kind of fuzzy companionship makes being on 60 mg a day of
prednisone bearable.  They make the pills less bitter, the itchieness less
itchy, and the puffieness less puffy.  And they make the breathing
treatments fun when they try and catch the vapor mist coming out the other
end of the nebulizer.  Now if only they would stop hiding all my inhalers!
 
Chelle the wheezy one
Gypsy "I'll hold down the fort if you have to go away again Mom"
Shandy "Inhaler? I didn't steal no stinking inhaler!"
Hugo "That big white car with all the sirens and lights made neat things
on the wall, and I almost caught one!"
[Posted in FML issue 2277]