A little nip and tuck on the "South Side"

Preston is now "Prestina", after undergoing the rather delicate snip-snip procedure that seems to take place in the life of every 6-8 month old dog or cat.  Lexie and I were musing that the poor little champ even knows that his manhood is no more, because even the anaesthetic AND the pain killers were not dulling that sensation of 'something missing'.  And as a result, Preston was depressed and whimpering late into the night.  I don't suppose that the cone he has to wear around his neck for the next 7-10 days (to stop him licking the wound) is helping restore a macho image.

And the funniest part about the whole procedure was that Lex had taken Preston to an animal shelter on the infamous "South Side" of the city, where the procedure, and the vaccinations, were substantially cheaper than they would have been at a vet closer to our house.  Knowing that Preston would be sluggish and irritable after the surgery, I agreed to help Lex and come with her to collect him from the shelter late Sunday afternoon.  We drove about 40 minutes to get to there, through a wonderful but a little scary section of the South Side called "A Little Village".  It's actually Little Mexico, and so many of the stores have their advertisements in Spanish, and sell a mish-mash of products and services that seem totally unrelated.  But the bit that I liked the most was the street vendors selling everything from helium balloons to corn on the cob.  The sights and smells were wonderful.  And when a huuuuuge car drove past us, windows down and radio blaring, with two young Hispanic guys wearing thumping great big cowboy stetsons drove past us, Lexie could only utter one word: "AWESOME".

I'm sure that if Preston could have lifted his head or opened his eyes beyond a squint, he would have agreed with her.