Productive Day with Sad News

Joe and I drove to the Wright County Compost and Recycling Center this morning to get rid of empty moving boxes. The boxes still in undamaged shape are available free of charge to people in the community for moving. That seems like a good deal. I never thought to check with Yolo County Landfill when we were packing in California in late 2022 and early 2023.

On the drive there we came across Pelican Lake which is a bird production lake. On the way back we discovered an access road so did a little bit of exploring. Here is a photo from the access point:

The rest of the day we continued to unpack. I took a thirty-minute nap this afternoon which helped me to complete the unpacking all the "known" kitchen boxes. The sweet spot of my day was when Joe hung our spice rack. The Ginger Burden built spice rack. Now I feel like our kitchen is complete!

The sad part of our day was learning that Rufio will be crossing the rainbow bridge tomorrow afternoon. Joe and I went up to Jeremy and Megan's this evening and spent a little time with Rufio and the family. When Jeremy told Caleb and Charlotte that this was their last evening with Rufio, it was a very emotional moment for all the adults. The kids were clearly sad and they got down on the floor with Rufio to give him pets.

Megan posted on her Facebook page the following: 

In early February, we took Rufio in for a small mass of what I assumed was fatty tissue forming on the left side of his ribcage. He was also breathing a little louder for the few weeks prior. We could hear him in the silence of our bedroom at night. The vet suggested that we should perform some xrays. While I prepared for the possibilities of the mass, I never once expected what the vet blindsided us with.

A tumor/mass growing on his heart, that was already nearly the size of his heart. Filling his chest cavity and pressing on his lungs and diaphragm. With no concept of how long it had been there or how quickly it was growing, we started him on steroids in an attempt to make him more comfortable. Unfortunately, they weren't enough, and with another xray after 2 months, growth was clearly there and escalating quicker than we had hoped. We could see the change in his day to day demeanor slowly fade too...and it finally became a question of QOL.

We decided tomorrow would be our last day with him. He is getting spoiled with love and extra snackies. If he can muster the energy for the dog park, we will go walk it at his old man pace one last time. I just hope he knows how loved he was, how much laughter he brought into our home, and how much he means to so many people. Ruuuufi-ooooo!

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