So Jenny and I are off to take our cruise. For various reasons (not least that internet time onboard is something like $5 a minute), I am posting these after the fact. Pictures of the cruise are available here. The full list of cruise posts is available here.

Cruise: Day 8 (Debarkation at Galveston)

Jenny and I arise at 6:30, since debarkation begins about 7 and we are anxious to be off. We again need to hurry on account of Dog Boys, since they close at 2pm. Unfortunately, we don't actually debark until 10:30 (lesson: always sign up for Express Walk-Off unless your legs are actually broken), and there is construction (meaning bad traffic) in Houston, which puts us near Dog Boys at 3pm. We have called ahead to make sure someone will be there at 3, so this is OK. Unfortunately Eric takes several wrong turns on the twisty, identical, unlabeled streets leading to Dog Boys (entirely due to a lack of preparation), which puts us at Dog Boys at 3:30 due entirely to the intervention of a saintly Lutheran Good Samaritan. Nonetheless, they kindly allow us to pick up our dogs, who dash out to see us, climb in the back seat of the car, and pass out for about 6 hours (as they do every time they come home from the Ranch).

This is where the week turns tragic. We arrive home, tired and in need of a bathroom break, only to discover that our guinea pig Neil has some kind of terrible infection which has covered and inflamed his entire right eye. He had a sinus infection when we left, but we had left instructions with the pet sitter to take him to the vet immediately if he changed for the worse (and this is very much worse). Unfortunately it seems that the infection developed very rapidly, so the first anyone knows of it is when I greet Neil on arriving home. One emergency trip to the only open local vet later, we are given the news that the infection apparently backed up and exploded into his eye orbit, and that he is virtually certain to be permanently blind in that eye. Both of us feel completely terrible about this, although Neil himself is taking it like a trooper (good appetite and energy, and he was purring when we cuddled him, glad to see us). We're going to make sure he has the best possible care, of course, but both of us feel like if we'd just been here we could have caught it in time to save his sight in that eye.

Not really much to say after that; we've called everywhere in and out of town (including specialists at Texas A&M) and we're just going to have to see what happens. Wish Neil luck, he's a plucky little guy but he's going to need it.