File Under "One Of Those Days"

I swear sometimes taking care of dogs can be more trying than dealing with the kids.

I wrote recently about my ordeal with one of my dumb dogs, Hazel, and she was up to her old tricks again today. If you don't feel like reading my past account--let me just sum up that it involved rat poison, life and death scenarios and thousands of dollars in vet bills.

So early this morning I had just stumbled downstairs and let the dogs into the yard. I was going through my early morning routine--getting the kids breakfast, packing their lunches, etc. As I waited for my coffee to brew I gazed out the window and happened to notice that Hazel was eating something out there.

Now I'm paranoid, given her past history of poison consumption, so I ran outside to see what she was up to. Just as I got out there, one of our other dogs, Petey, was getting in on the action and eating it too. They had already eaten whatever it was but I thought I saw a flash of something bright green and that had me worried because I have learned the hard way that rodent poisons (or "rodenticide" to us pros) are bright green. Hazel quickly ate that speck of green and I sent them inside and searched around the grass for any more clues. I found another little nugget of bright green and, upon closer inspection, was almost positive it was this stupid rodenticide. I put my specimen in a Ziploc bag and continued with my the routine until the vet's office opened and I could call.

The thing about this poison is that it's slow-acting. You don't suddenly become sick--it slowly removes the vitamin K from your blood so the blood stops clotting and you eventually bleed to death. Nice!

I put Pickle down for a nap and called, hoping they could just give me some vitamin K and we could call it a day--but no--they said I had to bring the dogs in immediately, which meant I had to get Pickle up from the nap I had just put her down for.

Did I mention it was pouring rain?

Now I had to wrangle a tired toddler and two hyper, poison-riddled dogs into the car in the rain--and then out again on a busy street.

I was greeted at the vet's office by a waiting room covered in dog-doo. An apologetic woman was trying to block people from stepping in it while trying to control her out-of-control dog. Just picture me--soaking wet--holding Pickle (who wanted to get down but I couldn't let her because of the dog-doo) while my dummy dogs wrapped their leashes around my legs.

Finally the mess was cleaned up and we went into the examining room where I explained what happened and produced my evidence in the Ziploc. The vet said she wanted me to leave the dogs so she could examine them and then she was going to induce them to throw up (ew) so she could check the vomit or whatever. I was barely listening because I kept thinking OMG this is going to cost thousands.

Later the vet called with the "vomit report" and said that Hazel's puke was loaded with the bright green stuff, but Petey's wasn't. She recommended that they both be put on vitamin K (for three weeks!). This was what I wanted to do in the first place!!

She went on to say that they didn't have the right kind of vitamin K but she would call my prescription into Walgreen's (?). Can you get dog medicine there? I guess so!

So back out into the rain for the dog prescription. I made the mistake of thinking dog vitamins at Walgreen's wouldn't cost too much. Get this: Hazels pills--$124 and Petey's pills--$188!! FOR DOG VITAMINS! I don't spend this much on all of Patrick's asthma medications. I felt sick paying for it.

Then back into the rain again, this time to pick up the dogs. Shelled out more money to the vet--reinforcing what I always tell the kids--which is: if you want to be a millionaire, be a veterinarian.

So I hope the dogs will be ok. The real mystery is where this poison is coming from--we certainly aren't putting it there. The only thing I can think of is that others are putting it out and maybe small animals or birds are dropping in in our yard? I don't know. All I know is that it's putting us in the Poor House.

The one bright spot in my day--I made a recipe from Cathy of Noble Pig--Baked Shrimp with Fennel and Feta and it was delicious! Here are a couple of pics:

So at least we had a nice dinner! Tomorrow will be better, right?