The girls are allowed to spend a portion of the money they earn. Recently they have been infatuated with Japanese erasers, and ask to visit Sweet B's Candy Shop to buy them for $1.00 each. I have not objected, as they are recyclable and nontoxic. What's not to love? Colorful, crafty, collectible. . .
and also roughly the size of dog treat. Rosie ate one last week. We didn't know about it until Sunday when she started throwing up all of her food. . .undigested. Being a dog rookie, I immediately started googling. If your puppy throws up all of her food several hours after eating and it is undigested, she may have an obstruction in her GI tract. Like. . maybe. . .a small, rubber, bullet-shaped obstruction from Japan.
I decided to take her to the emergency vet hospital near us where the doctor immediately took some x-rays of her and determined that she did indeed have something lodged in her small intestine. It was Mrs. Penguin.
The fact that I am somewhat making light of the situation should tell you immediately that this story is on its way to a happy ending. But last Sunday, standing in the animal emergency room and listening to the veterinarian tell me that Rosie needed surgery immediately to remove the obstruction - we were a mess. The girls and I welled up with tears, and couldn't believe what we had inadvertently done to our sweet puppy. Damn that STUFF.
Rosie is home now, but has a 6-inch zipper worth of staples up her little belly where the incision was made for the exploratory surgery to remove the eraser. She has weasled her way out of the "lamp shade", so I am keeping my fingers crossed that she will not play with the staples. And I'm using humor to cover my fear and guilt and vulnerability - fear that she won't heal properly, guilt that it was an incident we could have prevented, and the vulnerability that comes with admitting that you have utterly and completely lost your heart to a dog.
ERB
3 comments:
Oh, poor you and poor Rosie! Our first dog as a married couple, devoured an entire bowl of chocolate kisses, foil and all, and I was beyond freaked that we had sealed his fate. He bounced right back, even had sparkly you-know-what for a while. It's amazing how quickly pets sneak into your heart isn't it?!
Aw man. A tough time for the whole family.
You should probably know that dogs shouldn't be given bones from your BBQing this summer either. They'll splinter which can mean a vet ER visit like it did for us.
No grapes, onions or garlic either.
Hope all you girls are feeling better soon. You can't blame yourselves...dogs too, are mischevious. But only for the first 6 years or so (in our case).
j
Poor Rosie, Poor Cabin Family! At least it has a good ending, and, well, those little erasers were nontoxic! My brother once had a dog that ate a disposable razor - yikes - but many $$$ later it all turned out fine. I guess you have to treat Rosie like an exploring crawling baby that puts everything in her mouth.
And alas the deadline for the Jam has come and gone, but I still have an idea that I want to send to you later this week.
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