A Doggy Crisis

It's hard to believe it's been a few days since I last posted. It's not like we've been super busy doing anything but living life with a houseful of people....doing the mundane: cooking, cleaning, laundry and shopping.

Josh came back from football camp on Thursday and was dead tired. He slept from 6pm until 10 or 11 the next day. I missed the kid, but not all the gilrlfriend drama....and I decided it isn't worth giving the drama queen a stage to perform on, so I'll spare the details.

I saw this quote on another blog and I've found it inspirational posted on my refrigerator.

"everything will be okay in the end

if it isn't okay,

it isn't the end"

... let's just say it "ain't the end".

To make matters worse, something happened to my dog last night. I don't know if he had a seizure or a stroke or if he has something funky going on... but he freaked us out about 12:30 this morning enough for me to wake up my friend (with 4 dogs) in a total panic asking her what I should do. She gave me the number to the animal hospital emergency room. (gosh, I didn't even knew such a thing existed) See, this is why I called her- she's a pet-pro, and we are mere novices with our little house dog of 4 years.

I swear I was on the line with the sweet animal nurse discussing what was going on with Duke for nearly an hour. He had thrown up several times during the day, suddenly acting weird, walking goofy, being lethargic and stuff. I'm not gonna lie... I was NOT a rock in the crisis- I was a stuttering, neurotic, discombobulated mess. I can just hear that 911 call being played on some Pet "E.R" Reality show already. (ahem... are there HIPPA laws for pets too?)

Pat was telling me to "calm down, for goodness sakes. You're acting like it's one of the kids..." Now before any of you judge me... at that precise moment, it was like he was one of my kids. The only thing is, we didn't have health insurance for him. (which, by the way...I never knew existed.) The pet nurse was explaining that an ER visit costs $85 for the exam and it's extra for tests, x-rays, and bloodwork...and then there's treatment which varies, and it's all due at the time of checkout. YIKES!!! She told me it would most likely be around $200-$400! ARE YOU KIDDING?

Well thankfully while we were discussing what was going on with the dog, he seemed to be coming out of it. Although he was still very lethargic, we determined it might be best for us to just monitor him overnight and get in to see the vet in the morning. (except my vet is closed on Saturdays.)

Good ol' Duke got up to greet me this morning at 7 am and seemed to be walking normal, wagging his tail in a lazy morning kind of way... but even he had enough common sense to go back to sleep since we had been up until 2 am loving him through the sickness.

Phew. That was pretty scary. I never wanted to be one of those pet owners that treated their doggy like a person, taking them for car rides, and getting doggy treats at the drive through window. Last night, in the crisis... I realized I had become that pet owner. (Shut up, Sheila I can hear you laughing at me from here.)...but If you knew my dog, you'd understand why. He thinks he is a person.