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May 13, 2008
Where Is Your Daddy?
A wise man (Ms. Secret Blog's Boy) told me that when adopting a puppy, never be fooled by the snuggly quiet one. She's always sick. He is indeed a wise, wise man.
It turns out that Maya doesn't just have a little head cold. Nope, she has a “severe case of kennel cough”. After 30 hours of no food and water, our poor little girl could barely stand up and her hacking cough made me cringe. Another trip to the vet ensued, with a bunch of tests, two shots of sub-cutaneous fluid, and crying (from me) and howling (from her). Mr. MMB managed to avoid the whole incident by being “out of cell phone range” at a training session across the country. Lucky man.
Back when Jessica was in college she had a guinea pig that managed to break a leg. She made an emergency trip to the pet hospital, shelled out our mom's credit card, and brought to bear all of the guinea-pig-saving-technology available to man. Unfortunately, the guinea pig didn't make it, but the bill arrived nonetheless.
At the time, the rest of the family marveled at the string of logic that would lead Jessica to spend such extravagant amounts on a pet. I felt the same way until today. As I sat in the vet office with Maya curled up on my lap, whimpering and leaking fluid from an injection site in her back, I would have sold my soul to make her feel better.
Incidentally, have you ever force-fed a dog? It's not pretty, let me tell you. But it seems to be working since she is still pretty sacked out, but I did notice a little tail wagging during our last potty break. With any luck she'll be back on her feet in a couple of days and I can get back to my normal non-hysterical self.
