The vet office and school.

Our little Pug, Chico, has been limping for several months now. We took him to a chiropractor, who did all he could and told us the issue was more than structural, so off to a vet we went. But this was a new vet, one Anya was instrumental in finding out about.

One day I was at the mailbox with my daughter when a woman came down the street with her Golden Retriever. I knew this dog. I met them at the park once on a trip with Anya and the dog is the most calm and sweet dog I have ever seen. The funny thing about knowing them is this, I can’t stand going to the park and meeting new people in public! Anya has changed the way I live considerably. I even found myself on a beach chair sitting on our front lawn eating ice cream out of a coffee mug the other night at dusk as Anya ran around with Chico. This is so not the pre-Anya Monica. I again was talking to new people who know her and then later meet me. Anyway, Annie and her owner were passing by and came over to our side of the street to talk to Anya, of course. Anya chatted about bringing Chico outside to meet Annie and I commented that his leg hurt and he should stay in the house. Turns out the dog owner and her husband are chiropractors and she suggested a vet that would do acupuncture in addition to other treatments. So, we went.

Turns out the dog has an injured disc, which affects his walking, as well as cancer (a small tumor on his neck) and we are going for treatments twice a month for the leg-as for the cancer, we're just going to see how that develops. Well, guess who was enthralled with the vet’s office? We had to meet all the animals in the waiting room, learn their name, age, sex and why they were there. Again, more talking to strangers for me. Ah, my life with Anya. There was an emergency with a dog and Anya was very worried. When we got into the patient room, she asked me to pray for the dog and its owner! 

The techs and vet are fascinated by Anya’s intuitiveness with the animals. They even let her go into the back room to see the animals and were amazed that the resident cat walked over to her since it generally hates people. I have a feeling they would let her come in once or twice a month to help clean up or something like that, they just are so interested in her learning about how to work with the animals. I imagine she may work there as her first job too someday.

As we work on learning to read, there has never been motivation to work at it. Now there is. Anya told her brothers, “First I have to finish high school then I can go to school for vet techs or for vets.” Speaking of school, it looks like we found one that may work next year. But first you must know, Anya is terrified of going to school. Basically, she has bonded well with me and doesn’t want to be separated. Also, she knows she is behind and sees what older kids do for school work and it is just scary. We’ve told her that she doesn’t have to go to school any time soon and not to worry. We’ve never told her that she would go to a specific school either. The whole idea is just kind of hanging out there, undetermined, in the future somewhere.

A friend told me about a hybrid home school that teaches a classical education. The students go to the school Wednesday through Friday and do the rest of the work at home on Monday and Tuesday. There is the ability to be in different grade level classes in the different subjects with ease, so she could be in 4th grade math and 7th grade history. I dropped off a telescope at the school and wanted Anya to just see where it was, to ease her into the idea. We had already had the founding family over for dinner and a swim so they could meet Anya in a familiar environment to her, so when we visited the school, Anya knew the teacher. He asked us into the class, literature for 6^th-8^th grade, and we sat in there for 15 minutes or so observing. Anya was lying on my lap near the end of visit and she looked up at me. With a tired, sort of resigned sigh, she said, “School is gonna be really hard for me.”

Matt and I took Anya to a few parks to take a “school picture” for the grandparents and us to hang on our walls. It took me forever to get her calm, dressed and just so for the adventure. The lighting was really bad and the photos didn’t look good at all. In one set, her eyes looked like black dots. Yesterday, we went to a BBQ with friends, and one dear friend, Bob Chezem, took a few shots of her for me. These had great lighting, but she was in an I-don't-want-people-looking-at-me mode, so here are the results!

 Oh well, there are plenty of years left for more school pictures!

~Monica