Day 1521

Dot is OK. After spending the day getting a series of Barium x-rays to determine if her digestive system was still functioning properly, the radiologist finally gave her a clean bill of health and she was able to come home again. Everybody told me that we were extremely lucky that she was able to throw up the last big mass of carpet last night. The spongy, fibrous mass effectively blocked any solids from going into her intestines, which was a good thing. It didn't look like she had any long strands of fiber in her intestines at all. If she wasn't able to throw this mass up, it would have had to be removed surgically from her stomach.

All's well that ends well, but now I can't really trust Dot in the house when I'm gone anymore. Who knows when this frantic compulsion to eat something like this will return? We've got to figure out what is causing these episodes. The best guess so far is that she has acid reflux. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the problem. I had a bad case of acid reflux myself once. It took a long time to find the cause and eliminate it, but it can be done.

It was good that work was slow today, because it gave me time for the trips back and forth to the vet and other errands that I wouldn't have had time for if it was a normal day. Traffic was terrible today, but I wasn't in a hurry so it didn't matter. I decided to get Sprinkles cupcakes today, instead of waiting in the insanely long Valentine's Day lines tomorrow. What the hell. These cupcakes will still be just as fresh tomorrow. I'm tired of standing in line for two hours or more just to buy some very overpriced cupcakes. Apparently other people had the same idea, because there was still a line. It was a reasonable line though. I was out of there in twenty minutes.

This week I'm glad I live in Texas. They may be having record snowfalls in New York, but it was 70 degrees in Dallas today. I think the nice weather is expected to last through the weekend too. I heard several people talk about playing golf this weekend. I'm sure the cold weather will return, but I'm a happy camper now. This is one of the weirdest Winters that I can remember. We continue to bounce back and forth between freezing and sweating and nobody knows why.

At least we don't have sinkholes in Texas. I was shocked to see all those historic Corvettes get swallowed up by a huge sinkhole in Kentucky. Florida has a lot of sinkholes too. All we have are tornadoes. If Dot's condition continues to improve, I'm going out for a good breakfast tomorrow. It's been a long week and I need a break. Dot's not getting anywhere near anything cloth when I leave though. No more carpet eating! I think I'll pen her up in the brick hallway. I'm getting ahead of myself though. First we have to see how she does tonight.

Tessa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1520

It was a stressful day. Dot is not getting better. When I took her on her morning walk, she threw up some of the carpet she ate. About three hours later, she threw up even more carpet scraps. I took her back to the vet and she said that even though it was a good thing that she was able throw up most of the carpet she ate, she wasn't out of the woods yet. Carpet is apparently one of the worst things a dog can eat because long strings of the fabric tend to stay intact. It is these long strings that can cause serious problems if they get into the intestines.

The vet said I ought to try feeding her small amounts of a bland canned dog food like Hills ID four times a day, to encourage her to pass the rest of the debris through her system. Unfortunately, she couldn't hold the canned food down and threw up again. We'll be watching Dot carefully tonight and taking her back to the vet first thing in the morning for a series of Barium x-rays to determine if there is a blockage. Hopefully, she'll be able to pass everything, because if she can't, she'll have to have abdominal surgery. Our first Dalmatian had to have abdominal surgery and it was extremely difficult to get his digestive processes working again afterwards. He almost died.

Dash, of course, is still waking us up in a panic at three in the morning to go outside and poop. We're still not sure what is wrong with him either. My shoulder is taking its own sweet time to heal as well. Life goes on, but this is definitely not the best February I can remember.

I went to the networking breakfast this morning, mostly because Dot seemed perfectly fine when I woke up. She actually seemed perfectly fine when I returned. It wasn't until about 10:30 AM that she started throwing up carpet scraps. This morning's meeting was actually pretty interesting. There was no formal agenda and we just sat around and talked about how much our respective industries had changed in the last decade. It was oddly reassuring to realize that everybody else was facing the same jarring, tumultuous changes that I am.

Dot is resting calmly now. She threw up some more carpet right after I finished my dinner this evening, but she is breathing normally and her stomach is not distended. If she starts throwing up violently, we'll have to take her to the emergency vet tonight, but hopefully that won't happen. She actually appears more comfortable now after she threw up the most recent batch of carpet.  The odd thing is that she now appears to have thrown up more carpet than she actually ate. Poor girl. She's got to be really uncomfortable.

Hopefully, things will start looking up tomorrow. I saw the sun again this evening while I was walking Dash. That's always a good sign.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day