Ants in our pants

Warning: This is both a doggie and health-related post in case, you know, you like to skip this sort of thing...

Last week was a real banner week around here. Not only did I find out about the Pleurisy, but I also got monkey girl as a foster. I'm actually feeling perfectly fine these days (except when I neglect to take my medicine and then I go straight back to feeling like holy hell), but one really irritating side effect of being told you have infected lungs is that you're not supposed to exercise...like, at all, which is all well and good if you're pre-disposed to laziness. And don't get me wrong, I am, in fact, very lazy, but I love to exercise. It's a great stress reliever for me and when I don't get to run or go to aerobics, I get cranky (well, more cranky than usual).

Unfortunately, Monkey Girl is in the same boat as me. I wasn't originally supposed to foster her, but when one of our volunteers picked her up from the shelter and took her to our vet, we found out that she has sarcoptic mange. yeah, go ahead and click on that link and you'll see that in parentheses it says "also known as "Scabies". GEEEEAAAAAA (SHUDDER). Sarcops is not only nasty, but it's also VERY VERY contagious to both other dogs aaaaaannnnd to people (though not as much). So why do I have to foster Scabies-Ridden Monkey Girl?? Because I'm just really lucky, that's why. That and I have the set-up for Quarantine. Poor little Monkey Girl has to stay away from all the other dogs for a minimum of two weeks. She can't be in the same room or come into contact with them at all and since none of our regular fosters could swing that, it fell to me. See? told you I was lucky.

Poor Little Monkey Girl has been hanging out in my garage for a week and a half with more to go. If you take half a second to look past the Scabby Face, you'll see she is so sweet and lovey. She's a baby, so she has a ton of energy and wants so badly to come out and play. Every time I spend time with her, she just throws herself at me and tries to snuggle. And all I can do is take her for walks as much as I can, wear dishwashing gloves to pet her and then douse myself in Antibacterial Gel after every encounter. I keep thinking this dog is going to get some sort of Attachment Disorder because everytime she runs up to me I keep imagining the tiny little scabie bugs jumping on me and I freak the hell out. I mean, YOU try to look at that friggin' diagram of the bugs digging under skin and try to remain calm. I try to maintain about a foot distance between us, but it doesn't always happen. Then I have to change my clothes and douse myself in more Antibacterial Gel. My own skin is about to dry up and fall off from the amount of alcohol-based antibacterial crap I'm using on a daily basis. I may be ever so slightly overreacting, but can you imagine the HELL my life would be if the other six dogs in my house got the Mange, too? (geeeeaaaaa).

So, Monkey Girl* and I are both dying to get out and play and neither of us can for at least a little while more. We have Ants in our Pants and it is the sucking.







*by the way, Monkey Girl has a name and it is NOT "Monkey Girl" or even "Scabriella" which are what we call her most often. It's Cricket and after she's done with the scabies, she'll be one hell of a cute dog (and ready for adopting).