Our Poor, Old Man
It was about 4:00 pm on Saturday. I had just put the rest of the dirty dishes into the dishwasher when I heard a retching sound coming from the family room. I look to my right and there is Red standing over the largest pool of vomit I had ever seen. His back was arched like a cat’s and his abdomen was sucked in as if in pain. I ran to him and pulled him away from the mess, petting his head and comforting him in the process.
Little did I know that this was the beginning to a very long evening. Red did not stop getting sick until 5am the next morning. We tried everything from bland food, to milk, to water and nothing calmed his stomach. It got to the point where he couldn’t even keep down water. After hours of trial and error, we started administering water by spoonfuls at a time. One spoonful…wait 15 minutes…make sure he doesn’t throw it up, then another spoonful…wait 15 minutes…make sure he doesn’t throw up. This process over and over again until I was relatively sure he wasn’t going to dehydrate while we were sleeping, which is sadly enough what my family’s dog died of when I was in high school. At 5am, I fell asleep on the floor with my hand on Red’s chest. Every so often I’d startle awake, holding my breath and waiting for the rise and fall of his chest.
Red woke up the next morning feeling much better, but just to be sure, instead of dog food, we fed him plain oatmeal in small increments. And by the afternoon, he was bouncing around playing tug of war with Luna. I still have no idea why or what made Red so sick…maybe it was the bone I gave him earlier that day. Maybe he just had some sort of virus…but at least he’s feeling better. And now I can sterilize the apartment and attempt to get that sour vomit smell out of here. So far–unsuccessfully.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
So glad that he’s feeling better. I can’t imagine what a rough night that must have been. Weirdly enough…now I want a puppy again.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Hey Linds,
Thanks for the well wishes! It was a horrible night…and because we’re new to the neighborhood, we didn’t have any emergency veterinarian in the area to call. Ugh, I don’t even want to think about it!
As long as you’ve got the time to dedicate I TOTALLY recommend getting a dog. (Though, I personally do not recommend a puppy…too much training and energy to tackle!….But that’s just lazy, ol’ me!)
March 25th, 2009 at 1:41 am
That happened to me once and I was pretty sure it was food poisoning. Maybe Red just ate something he shouldn’t?
March 25th, 2009 at 1:42 am
Hey, FYI…your reply clock seems to be a bit hazy. It is neither March 25th nor 1:41 AM.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:09 am
It may have been food poisoning….I guess. I don’t know, can dogs get food poisoning?
And yes, I know about the clock….but I don’t know how to change it and I’m way too lazy to attempt to figure it out.
As for the birthday…I forgot about all that stuff (losing the car, taking my shoes off). I just remember that it was a BITCHIN’ good time! As for the 25th birthday, not sure I want to share it with the whole blogosphere, but maybe I’ll shoot you an email later this week!
March 25th, 2009 at 2:11 am
Oh, and no worries–the dark hair freaks me out a bit, too. Blame Missy. It was her idea.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
A private email from Ms. CK? I am waiting with bells on!
I always hope that my celebrity followers will Tweet me back on Twitter, but the closest I’ve gotton is Stanley, the Loveline Dog. So this will be the closest I’ve gotten - you will rank just above a dog.
LOL.
Seriously, I can’t wait!