Belly-aching

I'm really sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Could there be anything more boring to read about?

I doubt it.

But this might surprise you -

I actually left work and went home sick!

Yep. I was trying to tap this post out on my phone (in between letting my boarding dogs outside to potty) and my head was swirling every time I stood up, it occurred to me that I have never been completely 100% well, in a long time.

I'll get to the edge, almost feeling really good and healthy and  then BAM!

Back to sick and tired.

SO, I finished up what HAD to be done.

I wrote out notes and instructions and then took my files up to the office and told them that I was sick and going home!

I know. How dull. This is such a fascinating blog post.

Blah, blah, blah. 

Truly, BORING!

I used to read a particular blog and while I liked the author, she moaned and belly-ached so much that I had to stop, it was too depressing.

I thought about her today and realized, I'm pretty much the same.

I mean, who wants to read that?

So, I'm focusing on the NEW YEAR and all the things I will accomplish!

I'm going to blog more about Art and no more whining.

But FIRST, just a tad bit more! Lol!

Currently it's packed at work.

One of the differences between our clinic kennel and a regular kennel is that we cater to the old, frail and sick.

That means boarding animals that other places might turn away because of all the "extra" medical issues.

Right now I'm caring for this guy -

To be honest, his face looks like I feel!

I make sure he's eating and that he gets his twice daily medications.

Luckily he's a sweetheart.

I also am taking care of a couple of diabetic dogs (different families) who must have insulin injections twice a day.

But only after they have eaten something.

If they don't eat, I need to get creative and find something they do like.

One of them is a regular boarder and he's easy to care for.

The other is elderly, blind and finicky.

He will be here for 3 weeks.

Yep, no pressure on me there! Lol!

Then we took in a rescue dog.

He actually jumped into a client's car as she was delivering meals to house-bound people.

She said she couldn't bring herself to make him get out.

He had a huge prong collar on and was filthy.

Big patches of hair were missing from his back

And his head tilted and he walked at an angle as though he had been hit by something or someone on that side.

One of the techs gave him a good bath and I've been taking care of him ever since.

The Rescue is going through the proper steps and fortunately his old owners haven't bothered to look for him.

One of the rescue people said that sadly those owners probably will just go get another dog.

He actually has been very easy to care for.

He's calm and quiet and gently takes treats from me.

He pays no mind to other dogs as they walk past his kennel.

No aggression at all.

But when he sees a cat! Omg! He does NOT like cats.

I find that odd, that he could care less about little yappy dogs but hates cats so much!

Who knows, maybe something bad happened between him and a cat?!

Here at the clinic, they did a skin scrape on him and it's not a staph infection or anything.

Hopefully with proper diet and care, it will grow back.

Rescue will be taking him on Monday.

(Which is good because I will need the kennel space for the Holidays.)

Finally, and I suppose I should just put this in a separate post but...

I fostered (?) a little dog for 3 weeks.

CeCe

She had boarded with me a few times.

Her owner had told me that he was getting allergy shots so that he could keep her.

He said so far nothing was working and I wished him luck with that.

Then one Friday night as I was about to leave work, they called me up front.

The owner was in tears. He just couldn't keep her, he said and he couldn't bear to take her to a shelter. He wanted to know if I'd take her or find her a good home.

So I took her.

I told everyone that she was much too young for me to keep and that I would find her a home.

No one believed me.

But there was no doubt in my own head and even if there had been, I quickly realized she would never work in my home.

My other dogs have clicked into place like puzzle pieces, like it was always meant to be, but not CeCe.

My Ping, who always has to be in my lap or close to me, quickly hated her.

CeCe wanted to be in my lap!

Ping would climb on top of her and push her away with her butt.

When I slept, CeCe would try to snuggle up to me but Ping would have a fit and they would battle and I would have sit up and stop it by throwing the comforter over them.

In the meantime I had contacted a very sweet woman I knew whose little dog had passed months back.

I told her I had THE dog for her and sent photos.

She was very excited!

She said she had to have her!

But....

She was getting her carpets replaced and then she would be out of town for a week over Thanksgiving.

So I told her no problem. I'd take care of CeCe until she got back.

So... CeCe was mostly good.

She LOVED playing with Ricochet.

But she was bossy and would get into the other dogs faces.

One day she decided to take Jimmy on, over a toy.

He quickly wrestled her and pulled it away but she was having none of it and tried to battle him!

She ended up with a good scratch on her head. 

You can see in the photo where the scratch (tooth mark?) was still healing above her right eye.

Then came the night that CeCe got into Blues face as he lumbered up on the end of the bed!

Luckily I was able to grab CeCe away before a major incident!

Finally the day came and CeCe met her new mommy!

She had bought CeCe a coat and jeweled collar and a matching leash and a new bed and lots of toys.

They were both overjoyed to meet each other and were instantly the very best of friends.

My friend then suffered a loss in the family the very next week and she said having CeCe to hold and love, helped her through such a difficult time.

Yes, it was meant to be.

So, yeah.

Just a few of the things going on that have left me tired.

So now I will stop complaining.

I'll try not to write about it any more.

I'm even pondering about possibly letting this blog fall silent....  for a while,

or maybe forever?

I'm thinking about just go full force on my Art blog after the New Year.

(once I get it up and running and connected to my dot.com)

I mean, I'd still write my stories...

I have a few more things to share.

But NEXT year maybe just short ones

and doing an illustration with them.

Or maybe some days-

just the illustration...

Oh, I don't know!

I'm starting to feel very achy and I'm getting the chills....maybe it's the flu!?

Oops! No more belly-aching!

Xo

LET"S TRY THIS AGAIN.... BLUE WAS SICK

OK, let's try this again.
Although it has become kinda of a mute point, seeings how Blue is now doing well.
But I did have some cute photos of Jimmy AND there's a part of me that just wants to fix this darn post!
At first I couldn't load my photos.
Then the post didn't post, just the header I guess.
But some people got just the words of the post in an email.
Jeez, I have no idea what was going on.
Now I think maybe it was a blogger problem because when I went back and read this morning's post
I noticed that the font was all wonky.
So of it was big and some small and while I was super tired and had not had my coffee...
I don't think I did that.
I'm thinking something was/is up with blogger.
SO, here's my final effort for my post entitled -
"BLUE WAS SICK"
I just thought some fans of Jimmy Chew would like to see how his guilty little face gives him away every time!
OK, here it goes! I hope this posts as it should. (Fingers crossed.)
* and Thanks again for all the kind words and concern over my boy Blue*

Wednesday night Blue didn't want to eat.

That is NOT normal.

Then he started making a deep "humming" noise.

A couple of times he made a little gagging noise and then back to the humming.

I felt his belly. It wasn't swollen or hard.

If it had been, I would have loaded him up and driven like a bat out of Hell to get him help.

A swollen hard belly accompanied by drooling, pacing and the inability to get comfortable are all signs of bloat.

Dogs very rarely survive bloat.

But nevertheless, I spent most of the  evening just staring at him and trying to get him to eat some bread or just poking his tummy.

He finally hid under the kitchen table, to get away from me.

Sometimes his upper body trembled and wouldn't stop when I stroked his coat.

He went outside and had a loose stool.

I Googled all his symptoms and posted them on Facebook as most of the vet techs that I know and one of the doctors, follow me on there.

Everyone seemed to think he was just having an "off" night and most likely be better in the morning.

So he and I had a restless night and he had to go outside once at about 2:30 am.

In the morning he was sluggish and still would not eat.

I took him and Nora and Jimmy to work.

He didn't have the strength to pull himself up onto the van seat so I had pick up his hind end and shove him in.

I strapped the seatbelt over him and the other two bounced happily in the back.

When I got to work I went in said that I knew it was surgery day but - these were his symptoms.
Then I said that this was THE reason I worked there and that someone needed to look at him ASAP.

They took his temperature right away, drew blood and ran several tests and...
found nothing.

That's when we decided to do an X-Ray.
I knew something was really wrong when we lifted him to the table and he just laid there without moving.

As they positioned him I held his head. The vet techs remarked how good he was and I said that I really worried because he had to feel horrible if he didn't move at all.

So the X-rays showed some opaque objects in his stomach.

I had no clue what it could be.

They gave him some injections for pain and some pills for the loose stools and special canned food.

The vet said that whatever it was could remain in his belly for sometime but they were small enough that they should eventually pass.

Thankfully he's so big that it should TRAVEL out...

I kept running through my mind what he could have gotten into.

He's just not the type of dog to eat things he shouldn't.

Then it dawned on me.

Last week I was going through things in the spare bedroom where Blue, Nora and Jimmy stay during the day while I'm at work.

I had a big retro shelving unit in there that I cleared off and took to my booth.

I had a lot of art/craft stuff on those shelves and I suddenly remembered how I had moved a bag of little pebbles that I had bought at the dollar store.

I had gotten them to use in my little fairy garden (and of course, never did).

After I had moved them, I came home to find the bag off the top of the dresser where I had placed it and ripped apart and scattered all over the floor and over the bed they sleep on.

I had gathered them up and for a moment worried about the dogs possibly eating some.

But then I thought NO, they wouldn't eat rocks!

The pebbles were small dime-sized in brown, tan and white colors.

Now I suddenly I thought 

What if Blue just slurped some up?

I went to the vet and told him about the pebbles and he said - Yep! That could be it!

I was very irritated that someone had gotten those pebbles off the dresser and made Blue so sick.

OK. I hate to blame anyone when I can't be sure but...

I'm betting it was Jimmy Chew!

Grrrr

Later in the afternoon Blue started to perk up.

He wasn't a 100 % but he was much better than before.

I took all three dogs out to the play yard.-

Hey Jimmy! Come here!

Blue isn't feeling good.

He slurped up some pebbles.

Do you know who ripped open that bag?   

Jimmy? Jimmy? Was it you?

I think it was.

And Nora? No, I doubt that it was Nora.

She doesn't care.

She's busy looking for sticks.

Yep, she's just happy with her stick.

I might be joking now... but I tell ya.

I was a basket case.

Truly, I hate loving anyone this much.

I'M SICK, but will be back SOON!

source

I've felt a cold coming on for a while.
I've been achy and have had a stomach ache for a few days
but last night I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't even swallow.
I got up this morning and got ready for work in a daze.
I HAD to go in because it's the day after the holiday and it's at full capacity
and so many pets were going home.
It's pure madness after any holiday and
so many had special feeding instructions and several were on medication and one on insulin...
So I drove to work, through the pouring rain and tried to will myself well.
It didn't work.
I got everyone outside to potty, brought them back in and feed and medicated them and then their owners started coming to pick up their pets.
I was so dizzy and I was sweating and....
I turned to the head tech and the office manager and said
"I'm going home. We have to figure this out."
I never do that. I usually tough it out...at least until everything is done and cleaned
but I didn't.
I drove home.
I came inside and let all my dogs loose in the house and went to bed.
I slept the entire day and then I got up and fed my own pets and I took some more cold medicine.
I laid in my big chair as my dogs played and now I've finally come to the computer.
I can't really think...
I'm going back to bed now.
Be back soon.

NO POST TODAY

I'm SICK 

source

and feeling -

futile

adjective

1.

incapable of producing any result; ineffective; useless; not successful:

Attempting to write anything worthwhile by the sick blogger was futile.

2.

trifling; frivolous; unimportant.

I ATE TOO MUCH

at Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house

and then I came home and Blue was sick.
He threw up his whole dinner from 5 hours ago.
He's sleeping now but I can tell he doesn't feel good.
Lucky for me that I work where I do and if he's not better in the morning when we get to work, I'll ask one of the Docs to look at him.
Wish I could throw up.