I can't say it was an easy day yesterday.
I'd slept so much Saturday mainly and some Sunday, exhausted over the car issues, dealing with the RV park and the kittens in the bathroom and other things, I was up even before my 3:30 alarm went off, to get ready to go with Rogue to the vet on the north coast.
The dash lights came back on in the car not five miles out of Albany. I was devastated, wasting all that money on repair and debated on whether I should turn around. I decided not to turn around.
I made it the coast just fine, through extreme traffic on the freeway, most speeding at 10 to 15 mph or more above the speed limit. I felt like a snail on the freeway, going 70.
Once beyond the Portland congestion and yup, even at 5:30 a.m., its there, I was virtually alone on the highway to the coast. I drove through pouring rain at times and fog at times. I was there by 7:30 a.m.--three hours after leaving Albany.
I knew the next few hours would be a lot of waiting. That's how drop in appointments go at the very popular affordable clinic. People were already out of their cars, when I got there, in a sort of line, but more in huddled groups, chatting, waiting, some with umbrellas. Ok, only two umbrellas, this is Oregon afterall where umbrellas are wimp material.
I stood out waiting without even a coat on. The wind and spatterng rain felt nice, I thought.
The clinic isn't far off the Columbia River. Many cargo barges sat motionless and heavy out in the river. Waiting. For what, I don't know.
At 8:00 the doors were unlocked. Two lines inside the clinic began to form, one for those with surgery appointments, the other for the drop ins, hoping to get in for their pet to be seen. They will see so many in the morning, and so many in the afternoon. There's no take a number and honesty is depended on, for who arrived before who, but some people don't have an honest bone in their body and feel smart if they can cut in before others there much longer.
Waiting to be called in for the appointment, after going through the line. |
It took quite some time for me to even get up in the line far enough to enter the clinic. Then more waiting in there and finally my name and number and pet name were given over and I was dismissed to wait in my car. The receptionist called me when it was my turn. Three hours after I arrived, I saw the vet. I showed her the video of the drainage and the vertigo and she said "let's cut to the chase, he'll need sedated for exam." "Yes," I said. And off he went. And off I went to await word.
I drove back through Astoria, across the Young's Bay bridge and went into the Fred Meyer in Warrenton and got a deli sandwich. I drove out to the beach then, at the state park, to find somewhere to eat lunch and wait for the vet clinic call. Some of the beach access point parking lots have no cell reception but I found one that did and settled in. Most points on the beach itself also have no cell coverage so I was resigned to wait in my car. The sandwich was dry and tasteless and I only ate a part of it.
The rain had stopped for awhile and I longed to go for a walk on the beach. My back hurt from the drive and the hours standing in line. I napped off and on. About 2:30 I think the vet called. She said she was surprised she could find no external puncture wound, that resulted in all that sudden drainage, and that his mouth looked very healthy. However she said his ear drum was cracked and likely he'd suffered a middle ear infection, whose pressure caused the vertigo and eventually the ruptured eardrum and drainage. She gave him fluids, a long lasting antibiotic injection, an anti nausea injection and a B12 injection, hoping to stimulate appetite.
It's tough with a feral. Confine them and many times they are so upset by confinement they refuse to eat, regardless of whether sick or not. Rogue is very upset with his confinement and this makes him not want to eat, but I can't let him out of the bathroom until he's not wobbling around from vertigo or he'll fall off the runs and hurt himself.
I couldn't face driving back the way I'd come, and enduring bumper to bumper congestion through Portland for who knows how long and insane speed driving on the freeway, with high speed tail gating common also. About a week ago, in dense fog, there was a massive wreck pile up on the freeway just south of Albany that involved over 60 cars and big rigs. Two people died. The state police say it was likely caused by too many drivers speeding in terrible conditions. Big surprise.
So I drove down the coast highway all the way to Newport and cut across east from there to the valley, through the coast range. I could have cut across many other places but this time I went all the way to Newport on the coast highway. Slow going but way less frenzy than the interstate freeway. In summer its a nightmare to drive the coast highway, jammed in big slow RV's and pickups pulling house length trailers, with maybe ATV's atop their pickup too. Gag. On a rainy Monday night though, not so much.
I stopped a couple times to use a restroom and take a few quick photos and got home around 7:30.
At times, there was no rain, and the sky would clear suddenly and the sun would break through. |
Looking south towards Manzanita and Nehalem Bay |
Nehalem Bay |
Rural Tillamook area |
Nehalem Bay is a beautiful place. This is part of the bay, elk out on that spit, taken from Wheeler. |
Tillamook Air Museum, a bit south of Tillamook. Tillamook is a big dairy area and best known for its cheese and ice cream. I like Tillamook Ice Cream. A lot. Too much. |
Rogue had slept much of the day and was angry once home over again being confined in the bathroom. He's still not a happy boy and I hope he decides to eat. His vertigo is better, seems like. I hope the ear infection is all that is going on with him and that the anti biotic and drainage will mean its on the way out. I was in bed by 8:30 last night.
Rogue felt well enough when we got home to jump to the bathroom counter. I was so relieved to get him in to see a vet over it. Especially the vet who saved his life back in 2014. I don't mind the waits there. I really enjoy chatting with the other people also waiting. They're nice to me there. I knew if I could get him over there, they'd try to help him and they did. I appreciate them very very much.
The car ran just fine, even with lit up dash warning lights. No pinging on some rather steep little hills. We call them the coast range.
It looks like Rogue is on the road to recovery!
ReplyDeleteHe is, he is eating well this morning. Maybe realizes he won't get out of jail, a.k.a. the bathroom, til he eats.
DeleteA VERY long day. I hope that Rogue feels better and better and starts to eat again. Soon. And thank you for the beautiful photos too.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that despite the warning lights the car ran well.
He is eating again this morning, thank goodness.
DeleteRogue jumping up on the counter is a good sign. Hope his hunger overrides his anger soon and he eats. Enjoyed your pictures. I showed them to my husband who visited in that area a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteThanks, he ate quite a lot this morning.
DeleteQuite a successful although very long day. Now if only all those freeway speedsters and RV snails would drive at a speed that suited you, the correct speed.
ReplyDeleteHow about just driving the speed limit.
DeleteYes, I thought it was a successful trip. Rogue is eating again. The B12 injection he got stimulates appetite. The car ran ok, except for the dash lights back on. I should confess I like to go fast also, just don't want a ticket.
DeleteSounds like a very long day. But at least now you know what's going on. It sounds like your car is partway fixed. I hope you can get it all sorted sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteYes, its part fixed. And Rogue is much much better, eating up a storm now.
DeleteI like the idea of eating as a 'get out of jail free' card. ~giggle~ Thanks for undergoing this journey for your feral boy. I'm so glad he's better and that your ordeal had some upsides. ~hugs~ The fact you and Rogue received decent care and respect makes me smile.
ReplyDeletewell he is eating up a storm but still too wobbley for cat runs. he protests now and then, verbally, from the bathroom. I don't blame him. I wanted to see beautiful sights on the way home, before darkness hit and boy does it come early these days, and I got that, for sure, but wish I could have stopped at some of my favorite spots and not just driven by them. But many triggered such pleasant memories, like passing Oswald West state park, with its trail to Short Sands Beach through the old growth, like Arcadia Beach and Hug Point beach, like Ecola park, with that fabulous trail, although seems straight up, with switch backs, to the Oregon coast trail cabin, where I napped once, and overlook to Terrible Tilly, the abandoned lighthouse off the coast there.....I could go on and on.
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