The Reiders at Janet Reid's community know the current feline resident of my home well. He is Gossamer the Editor Cat, Keeper of the Bucket of Chum, lover of the lady herself, cruel taskmaster of my work in progress, sometime nestler, eternal funnyboy and cutie-pie-face extraordinaire.
 |
| Ohmigosh EYEBALLS |
Penelope the Publishing Pup has made it to Janet's pages as well, but she stays home with me more than not. She guards our windows, and that one spot in the front dormer in the master, makes sure the floor lies still for all of us by napping on it strategically, and revels in her yard, keeping our estate free of squirrels, bunnies, and That One Cat we call Sylvester.
Four years old now, their baby days are over, for all they get babied even so. So it was a surprise when I came home yesterday, and found myself assailed by the old, familiar stench we shall say was connected with her house training.
Oh my poor girl. I won't go into full forensic analysis, but it appears within an hour (probably less) before I came home, her stomach attacked. In five spots throughout the area of the home she has access to when I am at work, she had erupted unhappily.
She is not in the presence of plants, and there were no unexpected open cabinets, giving her access to cleaning products or the like. The "evidence" included no particular clue to what had gotten to her, but twice before I took her outside, she threw up again, poor kiddo.
I expect she thought she was in trouble, but I kept her close and asked her how she was feeling and reassured her. Her eyes were clear, her tongue normal, her teeth fine, and there was no foam or sputum around her mouth. She showed no sensitivity to my touch, and no heat or swelling. Her limbs were perfectly normal, so no injury. Last night, she was normal in her behavior, and ate kibble with no ill effects.
After a massive and damaging storm last night, the kids' vet is closed, but Pen bounced back with alacrity, and we are relaxing this evening. G-TEC appears unfazed and fine, though he always seems too skinny to me in summer, when his coat thins and you see his real shape and size. They are both eating normally, and another inspection revealed no untoward variables around the house.
We'll keep a sharp eye on both of them. If I can, I'll get them in Monday or Tuesday, when I am taking off and working from home, respectively. They are both probably overdue, so a 200,000-mile checkup is in order.
In the meantime: let there be scritches.
 |
| Dubious-faced Pum. "Scritches? I'll have three." |
8 comments:
I love Penelope and Gossamer, Diane! I really hope to meet them one day. I'm glad both of them are OK. And great that you'll take them for a checkup. These angels are really lucky to have you… <3
Less lucky than they deserve; we had a storm on Thursday night, and went without power for seventy-six hours. The vet was closed Friday, and though I am off today to spend some happy fun time with family (I hope), there is too much to do resultant from the outage even to check on the vet. In any case, I am sure they are swamped, and dealing with outage fallout as well. I'll need to just take half a day off to get them in at some point.
The good news is, the incident last week does appear to have been merely a passing thing. Pum's been fine ever since.
She's always had a sensitive stomach. What concerns me is not knowing whatever she could have gotten into, or why she got so sick so suddenly, even if it did pass quickly.
Beautiful pets! I don't think I've ever seen Penelope's pic before, and she is a really pretty doggie. I've seen Gossamer, but not full on like that, and yes! Ohmigosh. Eyeballs! Poor DoY can't compare/compete with that face, I'm afraid.
The occasional upchuck is always a surprise, and like you, I tend to start going through the day before, or the day of and try to think what caused it. Yesterday Little Dog threw up. (all of the size of a quarter.) He's a picky eater, and this could either be 1) got too hungry (although I offer him food all the time b/c he's picky, or 2)nerves. I had to be gone for a few hours for two different occasions yesterday. He HATES when I leave. We've found those little spewings before when I've been gone. Not sure what to do/or how he'll handle me being gone after the book is out. :( I'm kind of worried about that.
I've also been a dog person all my life. I've had two cats, assorted lizards, a baby red-tailed boa, and six angel fish.
I've also been a dog person all my life. I've had two cats, assorted lizards, a baby red-tailed boa, and six angel fish.
Troy, I never did date non animal lovers. It tells you something when a guy can't handle a pet.
Donna, LD just seems like such a sweetheart I'd have no heart to be mad at him for a little mess. Of course, I wasn't mad at Pen either, but her messes *can* be significant ...
In the end, she has not gotten to the vet. The storm we had that night resulted in a 76-hour power outage, and the vet was closed outright that Friday, if not on into the following week. Many of us did not have power by Monday and even Tuesday, and the vet's office was in a heavily affected area. I am a bad doggy mommy, but a loving one.
The good news is Penelope seems to be none the worse for wear; she was acting fine within an hour after being sick, and has not been sick since. She has also had a lot of fun seeing my niece a couple of times, while she visits us after having graduated high school. I found the pair of them sprawled and twisted on the bed a couple of mornings ago, Pen curled up on the pillow next to my niece's head. She thought she was in trouble and tried to hide her face in the covers so I wouldn't see her.
Great Zot, I do love dogs. And mine is one of the great blessings in my life. Big ole stinker.
Oh no. I'm never mad at Little Dog. He's too sensitive! He can hear/pick up on even the slightest change in my tone of voice and reacts by going into his "box" - which is his canvas crate. It's always open, and he sleeps in there a lot.
I do love dogs too. I've been considering if he needs a companion - although I worry it will disrupt him, and he'll HATE the new dog. Ugh.
Oops, I should NOT have made it sound as if you were or I thought you were mad at your charming wee lad.
So hard to decide on a new friend in the house. Gossamer had only been here three months when Penelope came along, and they were both still only six month or so old, so they've found their groove. It'd be fun if they were snuggle buddies, but they have their own fun, and the older we all get the more I see them in physical proximity, even if not to cuddle. :)
Post a Comment