Not Me...

 

Mike is gone this week for work, and when he's gone, I do not cook.  I mean, I really don't. So the other night, I did not eat a breakfast bar and leftover pasta salad for dinner, only to find myself starving when I went to bed. Therefore, I did not eat the last breakfast bar as a midnight snack in my bed.  I never eat food in my bed. That's just gross!

When Gus was sick the other night, er, wee hours of the morning, I did not bend down to look at the mess he'd made when he hacked up his dinner, searching for clues as to what he could have eaten. I was not so engrossed in trying to find out why he was sick that I did not grab a flashlight and follow him outside - in the bitterly cold 10-degree weather, no less - to look at those piles of spit-up, too. I am never so attentive to what my dog eats or throws up.

Lastly, I did not take Gus for a 1/2-mile walk around the neighborhood on the very evening that our temperatures fell to single digits for the first time in umpteen years. I am sooo not that dedicated to my dog! And even if I had, I did not come back inside and think to myself that my legs were so cold that they must've been in the beginning stages of frostbite. Seriously, frostbite?

8 Reasons To Get A Dog

1. There is no one more excited to see you at the end of a long day... Ever... in the history of the universe. 
2. They have such a zest for life! They're easygoing, carefree - and they teach you how to be that way too!
3. Unconditional love. No matter how many times you accidentally step on their toes or ignore them when you're mad at them, they still come back to you with that unconditional love/loyalty.
4. They're good cuddlers, even when they do weigh 80 pounds. :-)
5. They lick your feet. Not that I like this, but the point I'm trying to make is that, what other creature on Earth loves you enough to lick your feet?!
6. They can be your best friend. No friends? No problem! A dog will still love you.
7. They're funny to watch. Have you ever seen a dog run laps around the coffee table? Chase his tail? Play in the water? Bark at the hair dryer?

I'm sure I could think of more things, but these are just some of my favorites. Oh, and I forgot to mention the most obvious thing:  They're so cute!

A True Under(TheWeather)Dog Story

I lay there sleeping soundly in bed last night, only to be startled awake by what I thought was Gus having a bad dream. Sometimes when dogs sleep they dream and whine and kick their legs (I assume they're running in their dream). Instead, the more awake I became, the more I realized that it sounded like he was wheezing or choking. Like an old man with a bad smoker's cough. I rushed out of bed and flipped on the light and tried to quickly get him out of the house so he could get sick outside. [You see where this is going, right?]

Three separate piles and his dinner made a reappearance in each one of them. As is customary when your loved one is sick like this, I checked it over to see what he could have eaten that made him so sick, but I didn't see anything. This continued for probably the next 20 minutes or so, and I did manage to get him outside a couple times before it stopped. Now, I usually don't get too worked up when the little guy gets sick like this, because usually there's a reason - which at some point makes its appearance - and then he quits. This time was different, I could tell. I almost felt like he had something caught in the back of his throat, as did the receptionist at the emergency clinic that I called at 3:33 a.m. this morning, who otherwise didn't sound all that worried. Believe it or not, this was actually a relief to me; her calmness made me calm and able to think straight.

So, in we went to the vet this morning at 7, and after ruling out Kennel Cough, a chest x-ray was done and it was determined that my little guy had some slight fluid on his lungs and a little cough; so my Trusty Friend aka The Vet/Gus's Aunt sent us home with doggy cough medicine and antibiotics. And I'm hoping it works, because he sounds like a grown man when he coughs right now! Poor little fella.