They just Carry On

More post-OP content? I’ve got you covered. In case you don’t care about my dog’s recovery, please feel free to go do something else. I’m sure not everybody attaches as much importance to their pets as I do. As it is, my own life revolves around his road to recovery to a degree that makes it difficult to talk about much else. Sorry, not sorry.

For those who are genuinely interested: Charlie’s doing really, really well. 3 weeks after his surgery he’s gotten some of his mobility back, and you can see that he wants to walk, and run – in fact, the impulse to do that is greater than his strength. When he’s tired, he’s still a bit wobbly. But he can do 15 min walks now without having to be carried at all. Those things are part of the process. Physio lady and vet are extremely happy with his progress, and amazed by the speed with which he’s recovering. Yay!

As always, I have thoughts. You know how I wrote last time that I was battling the worst kind of anxiety and fears while he was at the clinic? Some of those were due to a misconception that I was cured of in the meantime: It’s wrong to apply our human way of thinking to animal sickness (How is that fair? Damn fate for inflicting this on us! How will this end? Will I be able to care for a handicapped dog? How will I cope?) All the things that pop into our heads are of no concern to a dog. As the physio therapist phrased it – They just carry on.

I find that remarkable, and so, so admirable. Charlie is the best patient: good-natured, patient and resilient. Some days are better, and some are worse. Some days are spent sleeping, mostly. Some are spent following me around the apartment everywhere, at all times. Some days he’ll just want a quick bathroom break and then return home, and some days he’s sniffing, and playing on the lawn at the park (almost) like he used to. I am learning from him, and I bow to his pragmatic wisdom of accepting that this is how it is now. When I look at him, I see the dog that I love. I hardly notice his shaved back and scar. I’m just happy he’s still here.

If I’m cooped up in the house like I am these days, I have a lot of time to work. My current translation is making very good progress (definitely a plus, for I’m looking at a really busy year). In my free time, I’m working on the chocolate brown colorwork sweater. See, I’ve finished the yoke, and am almost half done with the body:

It’s a good skill to learn how to make this kind of yoke, and I’m happy to have dipped a toe into colorwork! As always, this kind of project facilitates binge watching a TV show. I’m still on The Blacklist, end of season 4. We’ll see whether I finish the sweater or the show first ;-).

On Saturday, while my kids were attending a school event, I made a cake.

It’s a Bundt Cake with a funny Austrian name: Gugelhupf :-). It’s a sweet yeast dough, studded with plump cognac, rum or Whisky soaked raisins. I used my gran’s ancient copper pudding dish because I love the whorls and patterns it makes. Cake turned out great! There’s a lot to be said for copper cookware.

Gugelhupf Bundt Cake

500 g flour

1/2 cube fresh yeast

80 g sugar

3 eggs

125 g butter, soft

100 ml milk

100 g raisins, soaked in rum, cognac or Whisky for a few days in advance

1 TBSP vanilla sugar

Pinch of salt

Make a yeast dough of all ingredients, dust with flour, cover and let rise for 1 hour. In the meantime, butter your baking dish and dust with flour. After 1 hour, carefully scrape the dough into the baking dish, don’t knead, dust with flour, cover and let rise again for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 175 °C.

Bake for 50 minutes+/- – check on the cake after 40 minutes, and then in regular intervals, until you’re happy with it. Let cool for a bit, turn out onto a rack, then dust with powdered sugar. Serve with tea, and if you’re feeling indulgent, with butter, jam or honey. Enjoy 🙂

And that was it for a brief update. Not all that much to see here, but things are looking up. Also, we had 14 Celsius today, for the first time in months. I call that progress!

Take care, everyone, thank you for all the kind well wishes for Charlie, you know who you are – and thank you for reading today.