About two weeks ago, I went to wake Misty up for her afternoon walk and found that the left side of her face was completely swollen, so much so that her left eye was swollen shut. Luckily, the vet was still open - they closed in an hour. I threw Mickey and Misty into the car, dropped Mickey off at Tom's work and flew to Bilmar Small Animal Clinic in Great Barrington, about 20 minutes away. As I drove like a bat out of hell on the curvy mountain roads, I pondered everything that could possibly be wrong with Misty. I decided that the swelling was caused by her disastrous teeth. Anyone who has been around Misty will know that she has killer breath. Our vet in the city used to knock her out and clean her teeth once a year. He finally stopped doing it because he said she was too old to put be put down and put through that torture. Subsequently, her teeth got worse and so did her breath. I knew someone in Kansas City once whose wisdom teeth became absessed and her whole head blew up like a balloon. I was certain of Misty's diagnosis. My suspicions were confirmed by the vet. He presented several options: give her antibiotic and do nothing, test her blood to see if she could be anesthetized and if she was healthy enough, knock her out and take out the absessed tooth, or take out all of her diseased teeth so that she wouldn't have to go through this again. It could mean removing 8 to 12 teeth. After conferring with Tom, we both agreed to have all diseased teeth pulled. So, last Friday, I took her in first thing in the morning and Tom picked her up after work. She ended up having 14 teeth pulled. Can you imagine??? She was very groggy for a couple days and probably in hideous pain, but less pain than she was in before the operation. She slept even more than she used to, and I did give her some pain killers to help her rest. But as you can see from the video below, she's back to prancing around the yard. And her breath is like a spring bouquet. Well, not quite. But you don't smell her coming two rooms away anymore!