Yesterday morning, Nika started making horrible squealing noises of pain and refusing to put any weight on her back right paw. She just held it up in mid-air and gazed at us appealingly: Do something! So we did exactly what she didn't want: we took her to the vets, where it was determined that yes, one of her nails had split right down the center, and half of it would have to be taken off.

Aack. I won't get into the gritty details, but it was a minor surgery that took place outside the vet's normal room mostly--from what I could tell--so that I wouldn't have to witness it. But I could hear Nika shrieking through the walls of the clinic, despite the anesthetic she was given.

It was awful.

When she reappeared, she had a bright pink bandage on her back right foot, which looks like a pink sock, and I was told that it needs to stay on and completely dry for three full days. The vet prescribed a painkiller, which we're giving her once a day, but Nika's still having a really hard time walking. The worst part is that she can't really use her back left leg normally, since her back left hip was permanently dislocated in a car accident when she was a puppy, and her back left leg ended up slightly undeveloped and shorter than the other legs--normally, she uses it like a cane. So, she keeps bouncing from one nonfunctional back leg to the other, and it's really frustrating for her--especially when we have to fasten a plastic bag around the bandage to take her outside, since it's been raining off and on ever since we brought her home with her needs-to-stay-dry bandage.

And last night we all got introduced to the joys of an Elizabethan collar, to keep her from worrying at the bandage while we slept. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep at all. She was so panicked and freaked out that she could only sleep at all snuggled up against us in the bed...but not for long at a time.

Now, she's finally sleeping, curled up in her chair in front of the fire, while I try to stay awake. I think I need another cup of tea, and soon, if I want to keep my eyes open.

Bleagh.

The good news is, Masks & Shadows went into the mail today, posted by Patrick on his way to work. Hurray! Now I just have to get my mind sorted out enough to write something new...can't tell how much is the tonsilitis, at this point, and how much is just exhaustion. Either way, it's no fun.

And there are still two more nights to go...

Oh dear. I promise to post something cheerier soon. In the meantime, at least I'm re-reading Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls, which is always comforting. And if you want to read something of a more intellectual nature than my brain is up to right now, my brother's posted an intriguing entry about the proper genre classification of novels just like mine.