Friday night I had an odd dream. It was very vivid, and disturbing enough that I felt compelled to share it with the kids on Saturday morning. I dreamt that Nori had injured her right front paw, in fact it appeared to be mangled and she was licking and licking and licking it to no avail. In the dream, I had to put her down because the injury was so severe.
I told the kids about the dream, we all agreed that was just awful and then everyone hugged Nori and told her how much we loved her sweet little self. Later in the afternoon, Mario noticed Nori licking her paw. Her right front paw. No big deal, she's always been rather catlike in her self cleaning habits. I'm sure it means nothing. Except the licking continued throughout the day, and by Saturday evening I noticed she was paying an awful lot of attention to that right front paw. Still, I ignored it.
On Sunday, I bought some new balls for the dogs to play fetch with. They'd completely destroyed all the existing balls in the house, including Mario's new football. As soon as I showed the balls to Nori, she went apeshit and Alex started a rigorous game of fetch with her. Clark tried-he really did-but his weight just ballooned over the winter. Unless you throw that ball right into his open maw, he doesn't stand a chance against Nori's speed.
After several minutes of fetch, Annelise was the first to notice that Nori was limping, obviously favoring that right front paw. DAMNIT. Upon examination, I didn't notice any obvious wounds or injuries. Sure enough, even after a night of rest she's still limping this morning. So of course, this means that the free dog is once again going to cost me.

I cannot believe I'm experiencing apparent psychic connections with this dog! I'm a cat person. I only put up with the dogs because everyone in the family adores them and has ridiculous nicknames for them. I would much rather have pets that can handle their bathroom functions with no assistance from me, other than a periodic litter box cleaning. I like the fact that you can leave a cat for a weekend and not worry about it while you're gone.
Okay, I do like the dogs. Maybe I even love them a little. But I can't deal with nocturnal telepathic communications. We're crossing lines here. GET OUT OF MY HEAD!
I'll update on her condition after I spend more money figuring out what ails her.