Some of you may remember my sweet little pup Cornelia. With her super power split-vision she can watch both sides of a room at the same time. She just turned 3 at the end of the June so what better time to traumatize her Daddy than on July fourth.
Here is a picture of Cornelia in all her cuteness... adorable right?
So after waking from my well deserved mid-morning nap on the 4th, I walked to the kitchen and turn around to see her following me...looking like,
THIS!!!
My wife had left for work an hour earlier so being the dutiful Dad...I freaked out!! You can see how much her eyelids had swelled up. She had hives starting on her back and chest. My panic was due to the breeds notorious breathing issues and figuring she had got into something outside that morning on our walk. I try and pay close attention to the fire ant mounds as those guys can take down a horse given the time. (My other Boston, Caesar, likes to eat the mounds...story for another day). I am thinking her throat is going to start closing and I have only a short time to get her to the vet...who is closed because of the holiday...arghhhhhh!!!!!! I call my wife and do the verbal version of running around in circles. She tells me to shut up and get in the car and get going.
Finally I get her down to the car and we are headed to the animal emergency hospital about 15 minutes away. Now this is causing even more anxiety for me because it was I who rushed our 13-yr old Boston to this same building on New Years Eve 2007 and he passed away that night. It was devastating. So I am driving, and freaking, and petting Cornelia as she sat in the passenger seat. Thankfully she was very active and wanted to explore all over the new car (didn't happen). But at least she was breathing okay...she just looked like she had gone 15 rounds with Mike Tyson. And she was looking out the window at everyone when we stopped at a light. Nice. Probably gave everyone the impression I bred fighting dogs or something.
We get to the hospital and they take her in. The picture above is in the pre-exam room. The doc comes in and examines her and takes her back to the treatment area. A little while later she comes back and said they had given Cornelia a shot of Benadryl and a steroid shot. They wanted to keep her for the next 4 hours to watch for any respiratory problems. So I left to wait.
My wife got off work at 3 on the 4th and we headed over to pick Cornelia up around 4 PM. By then the swelling in her face was gone but the hives on her belly and back remained. These shots are AFTER we got home...
The hives on her back actually got worse after we got home and we gave her another dose of store bought Benadryl before going to bed.
Sleep is a wonderful thing. The next morning I pulled back the covers to find...a pile of puke!!! Cornelia had thrown up all the food from the previous night. Good news....she was all better and not a hive left on her!
Hope you all had a happy and puke-free 4th!
