This and That

Yes, it's me! 'Dusting off this blog and trying to get with the program. So where do I begin?

Well, I had a nice Christmas with my family. I only had Christmas Eve off work so that is the day my family all got together to celebrate, eat and exchange gifts. My daughter arrived here that afternoon. She went home a few days after Christmas. I wish I could have spent more time with her.

I received some nice gifts from my family. My daughter gave me a Kodak EasyShare M883 digital camera. I can make audio/videos with it. I still haven't figured out all the bells and whistles on it. I love it.

Last Monday my dog did something that caused me to nearly have a heart attack. I had found "evidence" that I had mice in the house. Years ago when I had a cat I never ever had a mouse problem. Within a month after her death about seven years ago, I saw a mouse here. Yikes!

Anyway, recently after my discovery that I have mice lurking around I went and got some mouse/rat killer. The store didn't have those little boxes of pellets so I got those bars to do the trick. I placed three bars in some places that I thought were safe. Safe as in....Dexter would never find them or be able to get to them. I had placed one of the bars in my bathroom. Not out in the open mind you but hidden away.

The very next morning after I had put the bars out, Dexter and I woke up. He had slept with me. He followed me into my kitchen. I always shut my bedroom door when Dexter and I are in the rest of the house because I don't like him to go in my bedroom or adjoining bathroom and laundry rooms without me being in there too. This time I forgot to close my bedroom door. I made a cup of instant hot chocolate and grabbed a Pop Tart. I always give him the corners of my Pop Tarts. It is one of his favorite "treats". One moment he was standing there watching me and I turned away. A few moments later I walked into my living room and looked around for Dexter. I crinkled the Pop Tart package and he didn't come running like he always does. I noticed my bedroom door open.

I walked to my bedroom and there was Dexter near the foot of my bed and he was ravenously chewing on the last remnants of one of those bright turquoise bars! I totally freaked! Oh my God. Just remembering the whole scene right now makes me upset again. I started to halfway cry and shake and my heart was pounding so hard in my chest. I hurried to the phone and called my parents. Dad answered.

I was shouting in agony on the phone and telling Dad what Dexter just did. He told me I needed to calm down or else I would make myself sick. He told me he would be right over and take us to the vet's office. I got dressed and all the while I was sobbing. I was so scared and feeling so guilty.

We took Dex to the vet's office. They told Dad and I to stay in the waiting room area and they took Dex to an exam room where they gave him something to make him vomit. I gave them the package that the poison came in. Several minutes later they came and took us to another room. The vet came in and showed us a pan of the large chewed up chunks of poison that Dexter had thrown up. She said it appeared to her that he probably threw up most if not all of it. They gave him a vitamin K shot. They also gave us some vitamin K pills that I have to give him once a day until it is all gone. They said we could take him home and to give him the first of the pills when we got home.

We went to my parents' house and I gave him a pill wrapped inside a piece of Velveeta cheese. Within a half hour he started crying and acting like something was wrong with his ears. He kept running with his head lopsided and crying out in pain. His ears looked red and the rims of his eyes looked red too. I hurried and took him to my car and rushed him back to the vet's office about three miles away. I was afraid he was going to die in the car. He kept thrashing all over the car seat and yelping out.

My mother had called the vet's office to let them know I was bringing him back. I was annoyed at how the office staff acted when I brought him back in. At first one of the girls there just wanted to take his leash and lead him to the boarding area and said he would have to stay the night and that I could go home now. I said "he needs someone to look at him and find out why he is thrashing around and yelping". I asked if the vet was still there. The girl said, "oh you want to see the vet?" She sighed and took me to a room. Dexter was walking back and forth and brushing against the wall and making wimpering sounds. His eyes looked awful all red rimmed and glassy.

When the door opened and the vet walked in, he looked up and was panting with his tongue hanging out sideways. She said, "Well he looks happy to see me! He will be fine! We will just keep him overnight and observe him but he is okay." I told her this behavior isn't normal. She acted like she didn't even notice him panting heavily and moving back and forth in a frenzy under the bench I was standing near. (She is not the normal vet I take him to but I took him to the closest place to our home because I thought time was of the essence.) It just annoyed me how the vet and her office staff acted like I was fretting over nothing.

She took Dexter and told me to go on home and I could call about him the next morning. She told me he would be fine. I fear that they just put him in a cage and just let him suffer. I was thinking maybe he was having a reaction to having a double dose of the vitamin K since he had had the shot before we took him home and gave him the pill. I never did find out. I called the vet's twice that day and evening before they closed to see how he was doing. The girl who answered acted like I was a big bother and she said he was doing perfectly fine. I asked her if he was still yelping or thrashing around back and forth. She said, no that he was just fine. She acted like it had all been in my head how he had acted. My parents saw him too and they agreed that something was wrong.

I called the office the next morning after they opened and they said he was just fine and I could come and get him. I paid the second bill for the night's stay and there was not a charge for any kind of additional medicine for him that night which tells me he must have just been put in the cage and nothing done for him. He seemed okay though that morning. No red rimmed eyes and no red ears. He was happy to go home. We went to my parents' house. Mom said to let Dexter stay with them while I went to work. He ended up staying with them all the rest of the week until Friday night. He enjoys being around my parent's dogs too.

He is still taking his daily vitamin K pill and so far he hasn't had any ill effects again. He has to go back to the vet's around the 18th for a test to make sure his blood is okay. You can be sure that all poison has been removed from my house too. I feel so damn guilty for even putting it out and thinking he would never be able to find it.