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Chapter 56 part 2
The next morning, Lena was up at the crack of dawn, anxious as ever to bring Rebel to the vet. She was exhausted from the lack of sleep since every time Rebel coughed throughout the night she shot up out of bed as if something had bit her. Lena knew Yulia must be pretty tired as well since on more than one occasion Yulia woke up to see if Rebel was okay.
“Hey. How’s he doing?” Yulia mumbled groggily as she slowly began to wake up.
“He’s still breathing a little heavy.” Lena answered as she sat slightly ran her hand over Rebel’s stomach.
A small smile appeared on Lena’s face as she felt a warm arm around her waist and fuzzy hair on her shoulder.
“Dr. Brown will be able to tell us what’s going on with him. Don’t worry.” Yulia said as she gave Lena a light squeeze before turning her attention to Rebel. Poor little guy. He’s such a good dog. Yulia thought as she gently ran her fingers through Rebel’s fur.
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“Alright, Lena. Here’s Rebel.” Mr. Katina said as he went to place Rebel on Lena’s lap in the back seat of the jeep.
“Do we have a diaper or something for him? I don’t want to him diarrhea all over me like he did the last time he was in here.” Yulia said as Rebel’s butt rested on her lap.
“Just think of it as his way of showing you affection.” Lena smirked.
“Yeah, well when you get a poop-stained roll of toilet paper for your birthday, keep that in mind.” Yulia replied with a grain.
“Eeeewww! That’s gross even for me.” Lena scrunched up her nose at the thought of the nasty toilet paper roll.
Yulia giggled as she remembered something. “You know, that reminds me of this one time when my friend Oksana and I were at the mall…”
“Surprise, surprise.” Lena interrupted.
Yulia rolled her eyes and continued. “ANYWAYS, this one time we were at the mall and Oksana had to go to the bathroom. It just so happened that the bathroom stall she was in was out of toilet paper so she asked the lady in the neighboring stall for some since I was two stalls away. Well, when the lady didn’t answer, there was a few seconds of silence and then I heard, ‘Look lady, I obviously *really* need some toilet paper! Now would you *please* hand me some?!?’ The lady shrieked and next thing I knew I saw an entire roll fly over her stall and into Oksana’s. Turns out that Oksana had a Snickers bar in her bag so she smeared the chocolate and peanuts all over her palm to make it look like she had wiped her pooped-covered ass with her hand!”
“Oh, I *so* wanna try that!!” Lena laughed.
“That doesn’t surprise me one bit.” Yulia grinned as she shook her head.
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“Alrighty, let’s have a look here.” Dr. Brown took out her stethoscope and moved it around Rebel’s chest.
After a few seconds of listening to Rebel’s heart beat, Dr. Brown took her stethoscope and looked down first before looking at Lena.
“Lena, Mr. Katina…it sounds like Rebel has a small heart murmur.”
“What?!” Lena’s jaw instantly dropped open. Yulia swore it would’ve gone down to Lena’s knees if it wasn’t attached.
“What does that mean?” Mr. Katina asked quietly.
“Well, because of old age and the fact that he’s slightly overweight, his heart is working a little overtime. His valves can’t pump all the blood that the body requires so it’s tiring out his heart.”
“How will this affect him?” Lena asked in a shaky voice.
“First off, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is that you can’t take Rebel on any long walks. His heart simply won’t be able to handle it. You’ll have to let him be lazy and expect him to be slower. The good news is that there’s some medication that we can give him to ease the strain on his heart temporarily. It won’t cure his condition, but it’ll lessen the affects. That’s about all we can do for him. I want to take some blood samples from him and send them to the lab to make sure there isn’t anything going on inside that I can’t pick out simply by listening to his heart.”
Yulia squeezed Lena’s hand when she noticed Lena’s quivering lip.
“Is there anything we can do right now to make life easier for him?” Yulia asked.
“Just let him rest for the next few days until I get the results back. Once I know everything that’s going on inside of him, I’ll be able to give you all a better picture of how to handle things.” Dr. Brown answered.
“Thank you, Dr. Brown. Please call us as soon as you have the results.” Mr. Katina said as he led Rebel out of the room.
“I will. The results should be ready by tomorrow afternoon.”
As Mr. Katina softly placed Rebel on Lena and Yulia’s laps, Yulia noticed a stray tear that escaped Lena’s clouded eyes. Yulia gently reached up to Lena’s cheek, wiping away the tear.
“Don’t worry, Lena. Whatever happens, I’ll help you get through this. You’re not alone.” Yulia whispered. Please God, just don’t let her put her walls up with me. She’ll need all the comfort she can get.
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