stairwell accompaniment:Guster

In the middle of the night I sometimes wake to the labored breathing of my dog, Levi. I am consistently aware of her presence in the room. She dutifully sleeps curled up beside my bed and each night, without fail, I step on her slumbering body as I begin my zombied walk to the restroom. She lets out a low moan, rolls over and waits for my return. I really love my dog. She makes me laugh out loud. She makes me smile out loud. I don't know why I love her so much, except that I've chosen to believe she is the most profound and beautiful dog that exists. And so she is.
I often enjoy Levi at my feet simply because she is another living thing in the room. She doesn't do a thing for me, provide me with conversation, give me anything... I loved her simply for her movement, her noisy barking through dreams, her loud hound dog snores. For her desire to be loved and the consistent affection she limitlessly offers.

But tonight an upset stomach has descended upon the world of Levi. And I'm not sure there are words to communicate just how awful is the awfulness of the pain and the ache and the affliction, and did I mention that it was awful? She is pacing the room, pausing only slightly to lay for a moment to moan LOUDLY and then back up to pace. According to sources close to the stomach, the pain goes all the way up from the part specified, along the shin, around the knee, up up up unto the jaw-line. The whole body is nearly paralyzed, except for the voice part, which CAN‘T STOP MOANING ABOUT THE PAIN.

This upset stomach is the most awful upset stomach there ever was, monumental in its awfulness, and I need to spend the next paragraph talking about just how awful it is, just in case you missed the awfulness that I have already mentioned. It is just so awful, really and very much awful, OH SO AWFUL. Ouch, it hurts, and it is still hurting, and in the two seconds since she layed down and acted as if might subside, it was hurting it hasn’t stopped hurting because it still hurts and IT IS AWFUL.

I really wish I could take away the pain, because I don’t like it when she is in pain, but more importantly because I would like to sleep tonight without worrying about waking up to a floor covered in paw-pacing marks and dog vomit. But there is just so much pain. And the puppy eyes are more desperate by the minute. And to illustrate that pain I am going to type this:WAAAAAAAHHH!!