Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Strays

Today I got to come face to face with the reality of my "save the world" approach to life. It started with our puppy, Luna. We, being responsible dog owners, took Luna to the vet to be spayed (what a term! Yuck!) 5:30 am I am driving a puppy to the vet for surgery. At 1 pm we get the call that everything is finished and we can come get her. (This was yesterday.) We brought home our sad, groggy puppy, and settled her in for the night. Today, things didn't go so well. She was supposed to be most of the way back to 100%. NOT! She was sick. Couldn't keep anything in. So, I called the vet. " Take her temp!" they said. I did (not pleasant!) 102.1. "That's normal. Give her an aspirin and call us back after lunch." So, I did. By that time she couldn't even drink with out vomiting more than she took in. So we took poor Luna back to the vet. They made us go to the drive through. The tech came out and did the tests. (Don't get me wrong. we LIKE our vet. she is excellent, and the folks who work for her are too.) PARVO. Apparently it is rampant in our area. The folks at the shelter missed it, and her vaccines didn't catch it. Options...$1000.+ to admit her to the hospital, where they would keep her on an iv and things would probably work out, or we could bring her home and give her sub Q fluids several times a day with meds, and things would work out. Life SUCKS!!! We brought her home. Learning to be vets. J loves it. (doesn't like that it is our puppy, but is fascinated by the process.) R doesn't want to know. The rest of us know what the most likely outcome will be, and are already sad. Good thing we have J who is full of hope and energy to keep us on the program.

On a more human note, I got to go to Cub Scouts today! Our Pack Leader is a Deputy Sheriff. He recruits heavily from the people he works with. R is the only boy in our den with two parents involved in his life. He is also the only boy with a dad who is even remotely a positive. It took us 30 min to get one of the boys to come in for the meeting today. This week we got in 15 minutes of scouting. Pretty good with a bunch of strays that we only see once a week, but a pretty sad comment on our community.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do hope Luna recovers okay -- it's so difficult to watch them being sick like that. Keeping fingers crossed for you.

Danni said...

Aw, Alan....I'm so sorry. Luna is so beautiful and looks like such a good, sweet farm doggy...I'll be sending her my strongest healing thoughts.
I hope your pup is chasing you all around your farm again very soon.

Shibaguyz said...

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time with your pup. We know more than our fair share of what you are going through. We're sending positive energies your way from both us and the boyz. Keep us posted.

jack-of-all-thumbs said...

Alan,

Best of luck but remain realistic. Parvo is a really nasty virus with a high mortality. The vaccine is good but there are new variants of the virus out there that are slipping past it. My wife (a vet of almost thirty years) has nursed many through it (including one of our own) but has lost many others.

Anonymous said...

Ohhh that is terrible. I am so so sorry. I really hope Luna pulls through this. Your poor kiddos, that just sucks!

We just lost our dog of 17 years and it truly is heartbreaking. I'm keeping you guys in my thoughts and prayers today. Kim

Anonymous said...

So sorry about your doggie. That is such a sad disease. We did have a puppy recover from it once so there is hope!

I know your toilet paper pessimism stems from being sad about little Luna. Hope she is better soon.

Becca

jack-of-all-thumbs said...

Alan,

I took another look at your original post and was struck by the fact that I (and the other commenters) all focused on your dog, and made no comment on the equally poignant (at least) comment at the end about the Cub Scout meeting. Certainly I wish you good luck with Luna, but that's the issue that will roll around in my head as I drift off.

Alan said...

Thank you all for your comments and concern for Luna. We are on day three of her medication. Yesterday was really tough and I went to bed without much hope for a good outcome in the morning. This morning she greeted me from her bed, sitting up waiting to go out. We still have a long way to go, but it was a glimmer of hope. She has acted a bit more like the puppy she is this morning, walking around the yard sniffing at things. Walking up and down the stairs. Even a bit of a greeting for the cats. She complained a lot about the shots this morning, also an improvement over yesterday. So, we face the day with a bit more hope in our hearts.

Danni said...

You can DO IT, Luna!
Hang in there, Alan. Hope your family's doing ok, too.

Kate The Great said...

Poor Luna... I hope she is better soon...

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