Nina Pham, the nurse who contracted Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas, was cured of the disease and released from her quarantine. It looks like one of the reasons that US patients seem to be recovering at such high rates is that they receive immediate and extensive treatment, such as IVs and anti-viral drugs, to maintain whatever bodily fluids they lose due to the disease, enabling them to survive long enough to create their own antibodies to the virus.

It turns out that Pham’s dog Bentley was also kept under quarantine as a precaution though there is no evidence of pets spreading Ebola to humans or other animals and yesterday saw a joyful reunion of Pham with Bentley. It turns out that Bentley is also a Blenheim Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a dead ringer for my own Baxter the Wonder Dog.

There is also a short video of Bentley while in quarantine. He must have been puzzled as to why he was away from home and from Pham and staying with strange people dressed so weirdly but he seems happy nonetheless. It looks like the people entrusted with his care took as good care of him as was possible under quarantine conditions.

I can easily imagine the deliriously happy way that both Pham and Bentley would have acted when they were reunited. I can say without any reservation that there is nothing like coming home at the end of the day and being greeted joyfully by Baxter. And if I have been away for a few days, he goes completely nuts, running around in circles, bringing his toys, and trying to get as close as possible to sniff me and be petted.

Baxter is very friendly and likes to greet anyone who comes to the house. The interesting thing is that Baxter joined our family after our daughters no longer lived here, them having gone off to distant places to college and start new lives on their own. And yet when they come home for visits periodically, he knows that they are special people, more so than other visitors to our house whom he sees more regularly, and he acts even more deliriously happy than when I come home. It is truly something to see.

In my post about Muslims and dogs, some commenters complained about the fact that there are inconsiderate dog owners who let their dogs bark incessantly at all hours of the day and night and do not clean up after them. I am totally in agreement with that sentiment because such people annoy me too, the same way that I get annoyed at parents who let their children run wild in public spaces without consideration for the comfort or peace of mind of other people. One of the strictest rules that our children had when growing up was that they must not disturb the peace and be pests to other people sharing the same public space and what applies to them applies to our dogs too.