death wish

I awoke to water splashing in the pool. Instantly I sat up in bed and tried to focus my bleary eyes on the clock. 1:30 AM. I reached over to touch my lifemate. His side of the bed was empty. He must be swimming. I rolled over and pulled the fleece blanket over my head. The spashing intensifies. Then, the coughing, soft at first and then very loud and persistent. So i'm thinking the old man is drowning. My thoughts - hhmmm, how much life insurance does he have? The coughing becomes disgusting. I roll out of bed and walk toward the closed screen door. I adjust my eyes to the darkness surrounding the pool. He's not in the pool. I still hear the muted coughing. A little ripple catches my unfocused eyes. I see something swimming close to the edge. Darn armadillo again, I surmise. I flip on the outside light switch and venture out by the pool. I look at the swimming critter and realise it's not that obnoxious armadillo. It's the dog. My sweet 17 year old baby paddling for dear life. Maggie is almost deaf, can't see much with the cataracts and is quite senile. She walks like someone on stilts due to the arthritis. So I reach down and pull out the terrified little mutt and hug her to my heart. I rub her down with a towel and go searching for the missing mate. I'm ready to yell and scream at him for letting the old girl outside alone. I find him in the computer room playing freecell. It's now 1:45 AM. Who plays freecell at that time in the morning? So I politely ask him why he let her out and he responds with, "I didn't." "She was asleep in the doorway when I got up and I had to step over her." So I have a senile dog trying to end her life in the early morning hours by drowning herself in the pool and a spouse that has a freecell addiction.