Last night was rough--Buford, the boy who is allergic to air (well, not air, but certainly everything else) stopped in the middle of the street on the return route of his short W-A-L-K and started to projectile vomit! The last time this happened he was having a severe allergic reaction to an insect bite (to this day I don't know if it was a bee sting or a spider bite). It was so severe that he went into anaphylactic shock. It was so bad that he seized just after getting him to the vet, and I learned later that the docs "brought him back."
Needless to say, when he started this violent vomiting last night I wasted no time and got him into the car and sped down to the emergency clinic (his regular vet's office was already closed). By the time we got there he had stopped vomiting but was glazed over just like the last time--yes, my heart was going a mile a minute!
Cut to the chase: fortunately Buford came through just fine--he was severely dehydrated from all the vomiting, he never seized and the emergency vet felt that it was not an insect bite but rather something he may have snacked on the side of the road when I wasn't watching him.
This diagnosis and care (subcutaneous fluid injections for the dehydration) took 2 hours. During those 2 hours I waited to hear how my boy was (he is my heart--no question!) while watching trauma after trauma, tragedy after tragedy come in through the front door of the clinic. 1 dog was hit by a truck while pushing his "sister" out of the way; the "sister" was brought in 15 minutes later after a family member realized she didn't escape harm; a pug was brought in to be "put down;" a mother and her son came rushing in with their cat who had just be struck by a car--nothing could be done; a husband and wife arrived--their dog had passed away at home and they brought it in "to be taken care of."
It was horribly real! I was the only person in that 2 hour window to go home with my precious pet! When Buford came out from the treatment room I did what every person who has ever loved an animal does--I slid right onto the floor and hugged him and kissed him and made sure he knew he was loved and that he was safe.
Folks--give your dogs and cats, the ones you count on for comfort, the ones that are ALWAYS there for you, extra "loves and snuggles" for all the others that have made their way to the bridge. Far too often their already short lives are made shorter by unexpected tragedy--so make the most of every moment you have with them.
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