New Hampshire - Day 19 - Concord

Crow's Nest Campground
Thursday, 19 July 2018
my Momma's birthday

I spent an hour or so this morning working out a route for the day's sightseeing, and then shelved it all because the only vet appointment I could get for both Gracie and Jasper was today at 3:00.

Gracie didn't get the Lyme disease vaccination when she got her other shots updated a few weeks ago, and there are enough ticks around here that I need to protect her.

Jasper has a different problem.  About 2 weeks ago he suddenly started having real difficulties with his rear legs.  They seemed weak and he had trouble coordinating them sometimes.  The litter box is in the shower stall, which is elevated about 8" above the floor - usually not a problem for the cats but now of great difficulty to Jasper.  I turned a box of kitty litter on its side to give him a 3" step and that helped.  But I was still worried.

He didn't get better and didn't get better and I finally looked online, figuring I'd get a lot of nonsense mixed up with some real information, but what I found is that it was not an uncommon situation with older cats (Jasper's 18) and I should get him to a vet quickly.

That's why I decided to grab the appointment I could get for the 2 of them, even though I hadn't planned to go to Concord for several more days.

today's route

On the way across town, I could see off the highway above the other buildings a glittering gold dome.  I'm sure it was the state capitol building, and I'll go visit it in a few days.  But I wanted to be sure I could find the vet's office - you know how easily I seem to get lost sometimes - so didn't take a side trip.

The Banfield is in a heavily malled area (mall after mall all along the roadway).  That made it easy for me to stop to do some grocery shopping.  While I was online looking for a grocery store and a CVS, I accidentally found that nearby was an office for the organization that runs the NH Highland Games and Festival.

Momma loved going to Salado every year for the Gathering of the Clans, and she loved that her grandfather had emigrated from Scotland, and she was interested in lots of aspects of Scottish history.  So in her memory on her birthday I went for a visit to the NH SCOT nhscot office.  I talked to a very nice woman who told me that NH's Highland games are in September, but Maine is having theirs in August, which is the month I'll be in Maine.  She gave me the information to find it.  She also said each year they read the names of those of Scottish descent who've died in the last year and offered to read Momma's name, which I gave her; they call it Flowers of the Field - a little too sweet for my taste but very nice of them all the same.  I was glad I'd stopped by.

I had time to spend a lot of money in PetsMart on pet food and supplies, and to walk the dogs a bit, before our appointment.  In these situations I have to take Dexter along with Gracie, because if I take Gracie and leave Dexter in the RV he starts barking like crazy and doesn't stop and is likely to do some damage to the interior.  It's just easier to take him along.  So I had the 2 dogs and Jasper and their vet records - it was a handful.

The vet said he couldn't diagnose Jasper for sure without running tests, which he'd be glad to do, but he could see from previous records that Jasper's been having kidney trouble for several years and failing kidneys are one of the things that can cause his rear leg weakness.  He said failing kidneys rob a person (it happened to Momma) of muscle tone, and the vet could tell that Jasper had almost no muscle left in his rear legs.  He said he'd be glad to do tests and offer treatments if I wanted to pay for them, but his opinion was that no matter what we did, Jasper wouldn't see Christmas and likely wouldn't make it much longer than another month or so.

I wasn't prepared to hear that and anyway, except for the weakness, Jasper seemed like his usual self for the most part.  I said I wanted to wait a bit and see what happened.  The vet suggested adding subcutaneous fluids, which is something our Austin vet did often to the various cats and it always seemed to perk them up, so I hoped it might help get Jasper over a hump or something.  We'll see.

I drove up and back on the interstate, and even with that it still took an hour each way.  20-30 minutes of that was getting from the campground to the highway in the first place.

All along the way I saw outcroppings of granite, reminding me that New Hampshire's nickname is The Granite State.  Since I've been in the state I've been thinking how odd that is, because I saw a lot more granite-mining activity in Vermont than I have here.  Here there isn't even a mention of granite in the tourist literature, the lists of things to see.  I finally went hunting for it and learned that in fact there really isn't much more mining going on here.  One of the most active mines is owned by Rock of Ages, which is the quarry I toured near Barre VT last month.  And Rock of Ages, in turn, is now owned by a Canadian company.  The New Hampshire company had no more family heirs and so was recently sold and the Canadians say they'll continue to mine here - this stone is called Concord Grey and is known internationally, by those who know these things.  But so much for The Granite State.

Plus, there's the sad story of the Old Man of the Mountain.  His image is everywhere in this state - on their license plates and highway signs and everywhere.  Unfortunately, he no longer exists.  The formation collapsed in 2003.  I'd been looking forward to seeing him.  Too bad.

For supper I'd hoped to find some chicken salad at the grocery store, because that's something Momma often had when we went to Hyde Park Bar and Grill on her birthday.  They didn't have chicken salad but they did have crab cakes, which is something Momma ordered when we came up to Rhode Island, so that's what I got.  And I had one of them for supper and thought good thoughts of my really special mother.