The Very Long Day

 Days like today are difficult to experience and sometimes harder to write about.  After a short night with not a lot of sleep, we left Utica and our intent was to stay at a free city dock in Rome NY, a short 10 miles down the canal.  We cast off at 6:45 am and an hour into the days cruise I noticed our cat, Dewey, sitting in the cat pan for long periods of time and upon checking, realized that he was not urinating and in fact, was unable to.  Having lost a cat to urinary blockage 2 years ago, I immediately became sick with fear, and knew Dewey needed to get to an emergency vet right away.  Not an easy task when you are in the middle of the Erie canal. The funny thing about the Erie canal journey is, that you feel you are in the middle of nowhere, but you actually are close to several cities and will sometimes even see a major highway running alongside of you. I was frantically doing an online search for emergency vets (remember, animals always get sick on the weekends....), checking into transportation to one and making sure Dewey was ok, all while going through a total of 3 locks and navigating the log-strewn canal.  No stress at all....

We tied up at the dock in Rome NY, which was more isolated than I had thought, but Tom was able to rent a car through Enterprise and we could drive Dewey 40 minutes to Syracuse where the emergency vet was. He had to walk 30 minutes from the boat to pick up the car and 10 minutes away from the facility they called him to say they had no cars available.  Really?!?!  We quickly continued down the canal toward Sylvan Beach on the east side of Oneida Lake and thought maybe we could get to Syracuse from there.  I was in constant contact with the animal hospital and they took all of my information over the phone and were expecting us whenever we could get there. Turns out Sylvan Beach is a small resort area with great beaches and an amusement park, but you can't get anywhere from there by rental car or Uber.  

So.... we had a good weather window and continued with the 2 hour crossing of Oneida Lake and planned on staying in Brewerton NY. I called ahead and secured a spot at a marina and was assured that Uber and Lyft were available there.  Eight hours after our early morning departure we docked in Brewerton, called an Uber and made the 20 min trip to the vet. It was 92 degrees with matching humidity and we had no car to wait in, so our 2 hours in the sun on the asphalt parking lot was miserable.  Dewey was whisked inside right away so it was only Tom and I suffering.  Haha.

Dewey indeed had a urinary blockage so they inserted a catheter under anesthesia and he is recovering with IV's and pain meds.  Somehow he managed to pull his catheter out, so they had to put him under once again and re-insert it - yikes.  Oh, and they discovered he has a potentially problematic heart murmur! I can hardly absorb any more bad news at this point...

The nice part of the day is that this small, family owned marina is charming and we know everyone on the 6 other boats tied up here.  Everyone has been very helpful getting us set up and it feels good to be among friends, even it they are new ones. They have a courtesy car here, so Tom drove me across the river for dinner on an outdoor patio overlooking the water.  Not sure I tasted the food, but it beat cooking on the boat in this heat.  Now we wait to hear from the vet.

Comments

Jennifer Holsen said…
Have been wondering about you guys since you haven’t moved. Sorry to hear about Dewey.You guys never have a dull moment, do you. Love you!
June 28, 2021 at 10:50 AM
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