Philosofiction

Steve Bein, writer & philosopher

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I Saw My Girl!

November 19, 2022  /  Steve Bein

Last week I stopped through “Palmy,” full name Palmerston North, which sounds less like a city and more like someone Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity would hang out with. "Excuse me, Palmerston, could you hand me my MAGA hat?" seems like a thing one could say. But Palmy is not a man in a bow tie and boat shoes. It's a little city in the lower North Island, home to an excellent bike shop (shout-out to Central Bicycle Studio) that just so happens to have a cavernous five bedroom, two bath Airbnb right around the corner. So I got me a hot shower and Goldilocksed my way through the flat, deciding which bed was just right, while Booster got some serious upgrades.

Embiggened rotors for better stopping power, new brake pads to go with them, a new feedbag to replace the torn one that's been holding on for dear life, a replacement chain, a replacement for the Voile strap that tangled itself around my rear axle and snapped, a new phone holder that (I hope) won't lose its grip on my Advanced Alien Technology whenever it rains, new grips (the old ones slip loose when it rains), and a pair of cycling gloves (the new grips aren't paddy enough). $800 all told, but the New Zealand dollar is still getting crushed by the US dollar, so this whole country is basically on a 40% off sale for me. Most importantly, I found the one bike shop that had almost everything in stock and somehow got all the rest by 9:00 the following morning. (Double shout-out to Central Bike Studio.)

The other great thing about Palmy was the wifi was good enough that I could see my sweet girl Cocoa, who I haven't seen since August. A couple of days before she and I left Dayton, she was attacked by a neighbor's dog. She had already torn a cruciate ligament in her knee, and this fight cost her the other one. (My knees are purple with scars too, from rolling around in the street fighting to get her free.) ACL surgery on a dog runs about $7000, and even if I had $14K to spare, I can't see spending it on an aging dog's knees. The recommendation from the emergency room vet was to put her down, which gutted me. So thank you, lucky stars, for the second vet, who saw a path forward for Cocoa. With a lot of care and an incremental recovery plan, she might be able to chase rabbits again—though not catch them, which suits me fine. I'm vegetarian, dammit! I did not sign up to carry all the dead animals Cocoa leaves in her murderous wake.

Anyway, the last I saw her, Cocoa could barely stand. I could carry her outside and gingerly set her down to pee, and that's all the physical activity she could handle. Ever since then, I’ve been bracing myself for the worst: coming home to find her permanently hobbling in pain. So you can imagine my relief when I saw her on FaceTime for the first time in two months, tail wagging at full speed, walking around as if nothing happened. I'm told she has a little trouble sitting down—she kind of hovers her butt a bit before getting settled—but what I saw was a happy and healthy dog.

It's so much more than I dared hope for. It was nice to see family too, of course, and to walk them around my luxurious flat, catch them up on my ride, blah blah blah. But seeing Cocoa is definitely the highlight of my week. (And this week includes a giant kiwi, so that's saying something!)