Hiway

My big fat girlfriend Hiway became seriously ill last week. Her 'normal' never ceasing frantic pacing due to her brain damage as an infant ceased. She began just laying in whatever mud she could find to keep cool and quit eating. Hiway is my educational keeper coonie of 2+ years now. She is my bestest girlfriend and the love of my life. I have been devastated for over a week feeling stupid not knowing what to do for her. I can advise just about anyone with a coonie what the problem is and what to do. But .... apparently could not think clearly enough to diagnose my own best girlfriend's issues. Until about an hour ago I thought she was going to cross over Rainbow Bridge and leave me. I have been a basket case. Many many people have been praying for her as they know what she means to me.

This was posted in my group by a dear friend and colleague and thought I'd share with you, as I had truly forgotten.

"Hiway, a few personal thoughts"

Gotta say a coupla things here, or try to. Matters of cosmic reciprocity and such are hard to put in human language, but that has never stopped me from trying before, so i will post this and then i will shut up and wait out the weekend in hope and prayer, too.

For those of you who were not here yet, or were and have forgotten the Hiway beginning a couple of years ago...(i hope Matz will forgive me for sharing this):

Avermectins are a class of drugs with similar properties, Ivermectin being one of the most common...BUT the dose the vet gave Matz to administer, as Doc Sandy said later that night "was about what you'd give a horse. It will kill her," she said. And that pronouncement nearly killed our Matzo; Matzo had mindmelded with this pathetic little bunch of fur and bones, sat through the entire night (or was it two?)picking and flushing maggots from her eyes, held and hummed her in and out of consciousness, clung on to faith in coonies' "amazing recuperative powers", marvelled at her fight to live when she rallied, cradled her when the very Essence ebbed, and suddenly in a stabbing moment saw herself as the instrument of the little thing's demise. She had given the shot that was going to kill Hiway.

I believe she would have willingly followed Hiway right into coma just so the little waif wouldn't have to go there alone. But Hiway didn't die. She knew the Presence was there for her and together they battled back through the dehydration, kidney failure, liver overload, neuro trauma, brain damage...and finally Hiway awoke, somewhat changed, but forever grateful to her Matzomom. And Matzo awoke, also somewhat changed. She had always had "the touch" with wildlife, always had healing hands, but each rehab was a challenge of symptoms, a partnered battle against whatever elements were trying to bring down that particular individual. Some were more endearing and memorable, but for each one the healing and release was the thing. They all got to her, as we all know coonies do, and each release brought days of melancholy and the crabbies, then softened as new needs arose. But Matz said, in the middle of one of the nights of Hiway, "This one's different. There's something about this one". And there is. They reached a place within each other that is usually closed to members of the same species, let alone another. Matz's healing will bolstered Hiway's, and Hiway took that weary little hannie and touched a place in Matzo's heart that even she didn't know needed healing.

So. That is how The Guru of all Things Coonie, who had always, "until that very week, day, hour and moment" lived and breathed rehab and release, and who had consistently proclaimed against "keeper coonies" (believing what Jani did was wonderful, but housecoonies are generally not the thing to do) suddenly had one.

The group responded with great glee and much teasing as phrases like "my best Girlfriend" issued forth from the erudite and clinically correct Ms.Matzo. Well, Hiway didn't truly become a housecoonie, but is, i believe the term is "permitted education animal"...a small(?!) fur ambassador who has moved school kids, day campers and even sportsmen to a different way of seeing wildlife. And she has remained Matz's "best girlfriend".

Perhaps what she is undergoing now is a metamorphosis from her impaired self to a new level of wellness; maybe it took her brain this long and a little fever to remap itself so she could stop pacing and worrying. Or maybe she is just aging (alas, don't many of us move a little slower these days?). Or maybe she is fixin' to move on altogether. Whatever she does or wherever she goes, "Essence" there will be the better for it because she will take a part of Matzo with her. And Matzo will be the better for it, despite her very human angst, because she will carry always, Hiway.

schulz

About an hour ago she "came back" to me from her near comatose state, and is now eating and perhaps with a little more prayers, patience and faith in the amazing healing abilities of the raccoon will grace me with more years of freindship and love.

Thank you to all for your prayers for my precious Hiway!