Rough Weekend...

I'm pretty wrecked. Both of our dogs are very sick. I spent most of today feeling helpless while waiting for the vet to call back. He was out on a bike ride today and it took him a long time to get back once he got the call from the paging service. So we shut the dogs up in my office and kept checking on them. And we busied ourselves with tasks to pass the time and keep from going insane with worry. I actually got a lot of work done and we got the upstairs cleaned up. And of course, we spent a lot of time cleaning up after the dogs.

I couldn't tell who was throwing up when or where. The rug in my office is completely ruined and it smells terrible. Moe was oozing bloody yucky stuff out her back side. I thought Cody was getting better and let him have a few sips of water. Shortly thereafter, he threw up 4 cups oor so of bloody yuck. I don't know what it is. I used the weed whacker all around the yard looking for things that would make them sick. All I found was a little pile of Scott's Turf Builder that spilled when I applied it a couple of weeks ago. But the vet says he doesn't think that's it. The vet suggested malicious neighbors, but I am pretty sure that's not it. We get along with our neighbors, and one is even a vet. So we are left with the possibility that maybe their food is rancid.

Anyway, the vet called me out of breath saying he would meet me at the hospital. So I loaded them up and took them down. I had the most awful thoughts on the short ride to the vet. I was certain they were going to have to be put down. Or it was going to cost a fortune and they were still going to have to be put down. Or they would die in the car on the way there. And I felt guilty thinking that maybe I missed something in the yard and it's my fault they are sick.

And here's the worst one of all- I had these thoughts about, OK, what if we can only afford to save one of them? I mean assuming there is a chance they will make it. It would be Cody for sure since Moe causes us the most grief. Rachel and I don't fight about much, but we do fight about Moe. We don't really trust her around kids. She attacks Cody when he barks at the door. She's the one who bit Brad (Brad and Jake were play sword fighting, but she thought Brad was really attacking Jake, so she got a pass on that one). And Cody is by far the lower maintenance dog. I mean, he's a little weird and skittish, but I can't imagine him ever biting someone. So yeah, we save Cody.

That is a horrible thought to have, but I had it. But, I mean, how much do you spend? $2,000? $10,000? $50,000? When does it get ridiculous and you have to say, "It's sad, but it is just a pet, after all." I'm sure Laurie would give anything for a few more years with Casey. And my Dad would have spent a small fortune on Bo without thinking twice. But both of those dogs were very old and suffering, so there wasn't really a choice for them. Mine are just five. And they are good dogs. And they are part of our family. But I mean, we have been struggling for months. And everytime we think we are out of the woods, something comes up. Last month it was $1,700 on brakes for the Trooper. And now it's the dogs again. $200 last weekend for Moe. $200 yesterday for Cody. And today I got an estimate for $2,000 for the both of them to be hospitalized for a few days. I got my first paycheck from the new job on Friday. I should have just endorsed it over to the vet. So anyway, for me, it's somewhere between $2,000 and $10,000, I guess. And don't even ask me the hyppothetical, "OK, what if it's $6,500 each? Do you just save Cody and pocket the $3,500?"

Anyway, I got to the vet and he was not nearly as worried as I was. In fact, he is quite optimistic that they will pull through this. I was very relieved, but concerned maybe he's just trying to get me to not give up hope. Like maybe that's something they teach them in vet school to make things easier on pet owners. Especially after the weigh in. Remember last week when Moe weighed nine pounds less than she did in Febrary? She lost another ten pounds this week. But they were both fairly active once we got there. And Dr. Smith is a nice man, and I like him as a person just from the short time we've spent together. And I trust him to not B.S. me. If you live in the area (Southern Lake County) they are great at the Middletown Animal Hospital. And today, Jeff Smith is my hero.



And he even poses for blgo pics. (<-- I almost went back and fixed that but decided it's nice that I actually had a typo on "blog" here on mindbloggingtypos. It is genuine. And have you noticed that my typing has actually gotten much better? I've been practicing doing it right since my shoulder bummer happened.)

So the dogs are at the hospital, sedated, on IVs, and being treated. I'll find out more tomorrow.

Between stressing about money and cleaning up some really nasty horrible things that came out of my dogs, and worrying about them, Rachel and I are both wrecked. Jake seems to be taking it fairly well. He's been a Trooper about helping clean up. And we didn't make him deal with any of the really nasty bloody stuff.

Now that I think about it, Jake's illness (the colitis, not just being sick this weekend) probably helped us all deal with this better than we would have. We've alllearned that medicine can work miracles. And as horrible as it was to deal with the dogs and seeing them hurting and not being able to do anything, it's far easier to deal with than what we went through when Jake first got sick.

Oh, and I have to give a shout out to Travis. I talked to him after I got back from the vet while having a cocktail and smoking a cigar on the deck.

Trav, thanks for answering when I needed you. And I will give you a great big bear hug in person sometime in the next month or so.

More tomorrow.