First Day of February; Dog Drama

Man did January go by quickly or what?! Is it really February already? Answer of course is YES and YES and with the advent of the new month, from this year forward I will remember February 1 for the dog drama that happened today. It should be noted than in 6+ years that Johnnie has been alive, I have not had the inclination or the circumstance (knock on wood knock on wood) for him to have such a medical emergency that I had to bring him to the emergency room. OK, maybe that trip to urgent care when he supposedly had hand-foot-and mouth disease when he was at Blue Oak. I mean the kid flew of a scooter and skinned both knees and an elbow and I basically just band-aided him up and bought him pads that same night. In other words, I NEVER had any thought that he was in any danger or medically compromised whatsoever. This dog however, after a pretty quiet first week last week took a sudden turn tonight. And it WAS SUDDEN! One minute we were outside taking him out to pee, then he was at my feet almost sleeping. And then out of nowhere she starts yelping LOUDLY. And then starts throwing up and pooping at the same time!! WHAT-THE-HELL? OF COURSE i panicked. Because she looked awful, just laying there all limp and lifeless. I mean I was thinking "did the dog just eat something toxic and now she's lying here dead??" All I could think of was to call Lisa and tell her we were in the middle of a dog medical emergency! You should have seen the way I tore out of the apartment with the dog still yelping in huge discomfort when I finally reached her. I could only think that hopefully this dog wouldn't die on my watch!!! Am I really more concerned about being judged - and more precisely... blamed - by Lisa rather than worry about the dog? Did I really think the dog was in dire straits?

Well to tell you the truth I was not really prepared mentally or emotionally to see the dog looking as helpless as she did. She really looked like she was dying. So maybe I overreacted a little. Of course Lisa didn't know what she was doing either contrary to what I may have believed. And all she could do was call Christine to ask for advice and call her mom. Gee... that would give me no more or no better information than I already had. Heck I could have called the Vet ER by myself. The question was should I have already? What constitutes an ER visit? I remembered my own ER visit back in 2015 with a kidney stone. Did THAT really help? Quick answer? No. And then of course there's the story of my mom taking me to the ER in the middle of the night and then me throwing up all over the back of the cab. After which I was immediately better. The pooping and throwing up is the body's way of getting rid of stuff it needs to get rid of. But looking the way she did? Was that normal? To make a long story short, Lisa Johnnie and I made the trip to the Vet ER... and then proceeded to sit there in the parking lot debating whether we were really going to go in. Because by this time, the dog looked much, much better. To cut to the end of the story, we elected not to go in. We chose to simply go home. And the dog seemed even better still when we got to Lisa's house. In the end I decided she was better off staying with Lisa for the night. Heck of it all, if we had to come back to get her the following morning. We'll just have to get up a little earlier that's all. And so Lisa got her wish after all... the dog got to stay with her for the evening and Johnnie and I went on home to my apartment. I was relieved that she was better of course. And Lisa will get to see her again tomorrow since I had to leave Johnnie and dog at her office for an hour while I get my 2nd COVID vaccine dose. Not the first day of February I envisioned, not even close. I will decompress later. It was enough to simply be done with the drama.