Macy May

Our newest dog, Macy, has been sick since Sunday morning. Jon and I had been keeping a close eye on her to determine just how serious it was, but we had ourselves convinced that it was something she ate, like when she decided to knock over the kitchen trash can for a splatter of tomato sauce and found many other wonderful surprises to munch on. We weren't too worried because she was still acting like herself as she rolled around on the area rugs to kick her legs in the air, or kept bringing her cruddy teddy bear to me to throw across the room for a game of fetch. Overall she was obviously sick, the details of which I will spare you, but it wasn't effecting her physically, and so we figured it would just pass through her system in a couple of days.

Last night it only got worse, though, as she woke us up almost every 45 minutes to take care of business outside. The night was filled with rain and thunder, and there we were, standing out in the backyard, wearing our pajamas and watching our normally indignant, and feisty little dog not care that she was being pummeled with rain as she bravely ran out into the middle of the yard. She returned to us with tired eyes, but a face that clearly expressed her gratitude of how quickly we had gotten her outside. A look that said, "Wow. I could not have made it without you!" And at 6:00 this morning Jon called in to work to explain that our little rescued dog had to be taken to the vet immediately.

Two hundred dollars and some odd tests later we still aren't sure what is wrong, but the veterinarian is leaning towards two options--either a virus, or a problem with her kidneys. While there they gave her a few different shots of antibiotics, and sent us home with more in pill form, and a new diet for her. And while I thought her current diet of Iams was expensive, her new diet of hamburger and rice (yuck!) tops the charts. They wanted to keep her overnight to run more tests on her kidneys, but she was so afraid during the car ride there, and when this stranger began poking her with really sharp objects, we just couldn't bare to leave her behind. We opted to give the antibiotics a go, believing that it was only a virus, and if things don't clear up we will surrender her to the clinic.

I'm not extremely worried about this. More than anything I feel bad that we didn't get it taken care of sooner, since she has been catching a lot of grief from Jon and I for a few accidents she had around the house. And of course I'm worried about the possibility of it being something more than a little virus, something in the kidneys, and more damaging. All we can do is take it one day at a time and hope for the best. And as always, pet health insurance looks like a pretty good idea in hindsight.