Yesterday I took the day off from work to go to Barrington with Tom and Knight. She had an appointment with a dental specialist. So now she's scheduled for surgery. Poor girl - I know her mouth has been hurting her because several of her smaller teeth were like shards sticking out from below the gumline.

The vet was really complementary about the job I've been doing in keeping Knight's mouth healthy; she gets brushed EVERY evening sometime between dinner and bedtime. Her behavior changed drastically for the better after we got into the brushing routine. Before she avoided having her face touched. That was with just when her gums were so inflamed.

Now the pain is from these broken teeth, and she actually seems to want to have it scratched and rubbed rather than left alone. That bout with Prednisone back last April and May made her a chewing fool and she was always grinding at a bully stick. She did a lot of damage to her teeth then.

Still the vet doesn't seem to think that the canines need to come out. In fact she doesn't want to have to tackle that because of how easily the bottom jaw can break during the extraction.

I told the vet about Knight's accident and how she may have an "instability" in her neck and she said that was something she'd take special care of, that when Knight was under they'd make sure that her head was properly supported as they manipulated her during the surgery. We were both so glad I said something!

I also told her about Knight having a positive titer for Babesia and her immediate reaction was that it should be treated. She also asked me if Knight had been on Prednisone during her accident; she immediately knew that the balance between Knight's immune system and the Babesiosis had been upset because of the immuno-suppression the Prednisone causes. What a really sharp and up-to-date vet!

I've been emailing cousins Sol & Mimma and mentioned needing to get some more Vegemite. So they've implemented OPERATION VEGEMITE. They are sending me some large jars by sea as I requested.

And then Mimma CALLS me from Melbourne Saturday evening to let me know that they were also doing an air shipment of some tubes of Vegemite because the sea shipment could take up to three months, whereas I'd get the air shipment within a week.

We talked for quite a while, ½ hour at least. I'm going to sign up for one of those prepaid accounts for calls to Australia because they quote a rate of 2.9¢ a minute. I know otherwise even a short call to Australia is a small fortune!