Day 234: Pulling Teeth

Well, today was the day that Tugboat got his Carnassials tooth extracted. After several days of prepping him with antibiotics the swelling in his face had gone down a bit, so I had hoped that there was a slim chance that he’d not need the tooth pulled. No such luck, in fact he was under anesthesia for almost twice as long as they had expected while cleaning things up. So after an hour of surgery, they were able to get the tooth and its roots out. They even had to take out some of the surrounding bone.

The poor guy is sitting right here next to me. He’s whining as the Isoflurane anesthesia wears off. I’m sure that it’s going to be a long night tonight as the pain begins to set in. They say that dogs heal really quickly from oral surgeries. I hope that's the case. He’s on soft food for the next seven days, but beyond that he doesn’t even go in for a follow-up visit.

Tugboat is so incredibly important to me. I don’t have children, as most of you already know, so he’s my four-legged child. In fact all of my pets have been treated as family, and never as accoutrements. As I sit here tonight and write, I’m breathing easier knowing that he’s been given the care that he needed, and that he’s going to make a full recovery.

I waited to hear from Tugboat’s surgeon before I rode today. There was no way that I could have focused on riding while he was in the O.R. Once that the call came in, and I knew that he was conscious and doing fine, I then grabbed my gear and headed out for a quick lap of Paradise Drive.

I chose to ride on the road today for two reasons. One was to give my legs a nice day of recovery after many consecutive days of riding on the mountain, and the second is that I find riding on the road to be more meditative, and I needed that today. When riding on mountain bikes, and especially in technically difficult conditions, there’s a lot on which to focus, and not a lot of time to get into any sort meditative state. So I chose to ride my road bike today in order to feel that rhythm that I can usually find when spinning along. I look forward to doing the long rides that I was doing during the summer and fall of last year, but that will only be when the temperatures warm up. I miss my trips out to West Marin.

I keep mentioning that I can feel that spring is on the way, and I’m doing so because it reminds me that I’m nearing the end of doing the really tough rides, and I’m headed back towards doing the ones that I love. Adventurous, challenging, and fun rides with my friends.