We have rain, and seemingly more improvements for Shade, but she's not out of the woods yet. Sales, subscribers, and shares all very much needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

Well, despite the high winds in this tinderbox last night, it appears that the local municipalities managed to set off their damn fireworks without also setting fire to the whole county. The horses were remarkably unbothered: We let Shade out last night to graze, and she seems to be doing visibly better today, if also thoroughly exhausted. 

She got no nighttime dose of SMZ last night. The small Benadryl dose didn't take down the swelling of the hives much, but it did reduce their feelings of inflammation; that much was apparent from her behavior. After something less than a quarter-dose of Banamine last night, they are almost all gone today. She managed to pass two fairly sizeable amounts of wet manure overnight, and at least five smaller ones this morning; she also grazed outside for about an hour, and has been drinking plenty of water. This morning, we gave her the aloe and the BioSponge to help with the diarrheic effects of everything else, but we're keeping her off the antibiotics for good. She's more alert, clearer-eyed, but very, very sleepy today. No surprise; this has been going on for a week, and with the pain and trauma to her body and the meds and everything else, she's had precious little rest, either.

No, not out of the woods. Not by a long shot, and right now, I'm still only talking about the colic and the displacement, not the liver or the Cushing's. But we have a little more hope today than we did yesterday. I was telling a dear friend a while ago that it actually seemed as though it might finally rain here, and that we couldn't escape this weird idea that the rain's fate and Shade's were bound up together: If we got the former, we'd also get the latter. 

It's been raining off and on for a couple of hours now.

In fact, we have a flash-flood watch in effect from noon to midnight, so maybe monsoon season is finally here. Pray for rain, but pray for Shade, too.

I'm still way behind, though, so it's just cut-and-paste from here on out. We very much, very badly need sales and new Patreon subscribers, and since this is early July, if you subscribe today, you won't be billed until August 1st. Here are the links and a request to share them, because without those sales and subscribers, I honestly don't know how we get through this:

• My new Patreon, The Interstices (Writing Between Worlds);
• Wings's site, for sales, with new items posted;
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to all of our medical bills, which continue to mount);
• Amazon wishlist, which mostly consists of animal and household stuff;
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. There are new kitchen-y things on it now, stuff that I didn't realize we'd need to replace (either because the RV ruined it or because we gave it away when we had to downsize).

I had said that I'd really like to raise another $500 in subscriptions before July is out, just to have a little more to throw to the medical wolves that are constantly at my throat. Now, we've got a lot more that needs to be done, too, and I'm damned if I know how. The truck was more than enough to throw a wrench in the works, but this thing with Shade? And once you're in it, you have to keep going; there's no way out but forward, whatever the result. So please, please share the links. Thanks to everyone who has kicked in on Shade's behalf already; we're profoundly grateful, and we love you all. Shade does, too, even if she can't verbalize it.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.