A personal pawprintA personal pawprinthttp://www.southsidepetclinic.com/a-personal-pawprint/2012-07-29T02:38:06ZSquarespaceEvening Rainhttp://www.southsidepetclinic.com/a-personal-pawprint/2012/7/28/evening-rain.htmlSarah Eiland2012-07-29T01:59:54Z2012-07-29T01:59:54ZI remember the rainy night of 15 November 2006 clearly. When my husband came home from work, I already had dinner ready. He told me to wait on dinner and asked me to go to the living room and sit down. He also asked that I close my eyes. I did not particularly like to close my eyes due to my hearing impairment; I liked to know what was going on with whatever abilities I do have. Yet with my eyes closed, I could not trust my faulty hearing to tell me what I was actually hearing. STILL, I obeyed. Yet I felt like I was waiting forever. I did not know if it was five minutes or fifteen before I started getting panicky impatient. The relief came when I felt him sitting down next to me, and I could not help but peep. He saw me peeping and covered my eyes with his hand. What I did catch before he did that, he was finishing putting something on the floor at my feet. My curiosity mushroomed, and I urged him to hurry up. I heard his voice saying something which I recognized as "okay, you can open your eyes."

My eyes slowly opened and then my heart stopped a beat or two. It was the most gorgeous, tender, shiny, little black kitten I had ever seen. I knew right away it was a girl by the feminine tilt of her eyes. I fell in love with her eyes. The most feminine feline eyes.

Due to the early part of our marriage, we had the tendency to name our furry babies after the Seinfeld show characters. I refused to name her Elaine. The kitten was too sweet to be named after her. Yet I would honor the Seinfeld tradition somewhat by naming her with a name that starts with an "E" to substitute Elaine. Thinking back to the first few months of our marriage, we experienced our first sad passing of a beloved pet, a tuxedo cat named Hitler. He was this devil of a feral cat turned gentleman whose name changed from Lucifer to Hitler due to the mustache under his nose. I loved that macho male of a cat, especially when I learned his behavior changed when I entered his life by dating Dr. Eiland. To encompass our favorite song when we dated, the letter "E," and also honor Hitler's memory, I decided to give the kitten the formal name of Evening Rain and nicknamed her Eva.

Eva was and still is a fitting name for this gorgeous shiny black kitten who had grown into this voluptuous prima donna now gracing the halls at Southside Pet Clinic with her famous tiptoed sauntering. She loves living at the clinic, where she gets to see both of her parents working to take care of other people's pets. She would definitely be loud in her opinions and responded to whoever called her name. "Eva!" With her being a prima donna, she would give her tuxedo brother Kramer an attitude every once in a while. Yet she knew Kramer will take care of her when she needs him.

 

]]>The Grey Manhttp://www.southsidepetclinic.com/a-personal-pawprint/2012/4/6/the-grey-man.htmlSarah Eiland2012-04-07T03:09:54Z2012-04-07T03:09:54ZThis seven-pound Chihuahua namely The Grey Man came into our lives through his need of receiving meds for his condition not getting enough steroids. The symptoms he had shown in the past include listlessness, depression, weight loss, and low body temperature. He has been diagnosed with Addison's Disease. The following website http://www.addisondogs.com/addisons/ is one example of learning more about Addison's Disease.

A normal day is with him wagging his tail furiously as I pulled out the chicken-flavored pill pockets bag to retrieve half a pill pocket to cover his mandatory steroid pill (half a tab due to his weight). I hold it out for him to snatch to chomp it down. He receives his "treat" once in the morning and once at night. Every four weeks, he is to get his booster shot...which he would voice his displeasure but wags his tail afterwards.

Apart from giving his daily meds and monitoring his behavior for any signs of listlessness and depression, The Grey Man is the ideal Chihuahua. Dr. Eiland and I are blessed with every minute, every day we have The Grey Man. I can say this, we are addicted to his wonderful, playful, loving personality. Whenever I come to work at the clinic, I bring The Grey Man, along with his younger brothers, Monkey the Maltese and Vito the blonde Chihuahua.

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