Howie's Big Adventure

I know, I know... It has been a long time. My only defense is a serious case of cabin fever - the moment it began melting outside, I just couldn't find the time to sit inside at the computer. And now, despite the melting and snowing, melting and snowing, melting and so on... it has finally become beautiful outside. I've been spending time planting some flowers, planning a little garden, and just enjoying having a fenced-in yard for my two pups. I love being a home-owner! There are always tons of things to do, but it feels good to be investing in something so long term. There have been lots of things happening lately - work has been super busy for both Joel and I, I just finished up my most recent grad class (educational statistics - pretty painful - SO glad it is over), I took a trip to San Diego with Robbi and Meeks... the list goes on! I promise to try and update more frequently - I should definitely get some of those fun San Diego pictures up here soon. However, since I can't write about everything in one blog, I will devote the remainder of this one to what I will now affectionately term "Howie's Big Adventure."

This past Friday, Joel and I headed over to a coworkers place for a get-together celebrating the graduation of one of the student workers in my office. We brought Howie along, as there was a fenced-in yard and lots of kids for him to romp around with. While we were chatting in the sunroom, Howie was outside running around with a couple of the kids. He apparently decided that it was time for a quick detour and a snack, so he snuck away for a couple seconds and one of the kids saw him just as he was licking up the last little bit of bright blue mouse poison pellets that were located behind the garage in the yard.

YES - bright blue mouse POISON pellets.

At this point, I have to point out that my coworker would NEVER have let Howie run around if she had known the mouse poison was there. She is a wonderful, dog-loving individual who had a dog of her own for years and years. Accidents happen! Okay, back to the story...

My coworker's little girl (the one who saw Howie eating the poison) did exactly the right thing - she ran straight for the nearest adult and told her what had happened. As soon as we found out, I dashed for the phone book and the emergency vet number. The vet told me to feed Howie a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide every 10 minutes until he threw up all of the poison. He was NOT HAPPY about it. Poor little guy threw up puppy food, hydrogen peroxide, and lots and lots of bright blue pellets about 10 times over the next few minutes until everything was coming up (and out) clear - no more blue pellets! By this time our little guy was pretty scared and worked up from all of the throwing up and I'm sure he didn't understand why we objected so strongly to those tasty blue treats.

The vet had also told me that if he threw everything up, we should just watch him for the next couple days for signs of bleeding, lethargy, and/or pale gums. Well, the bleeding would be fairly apparent, but if someone could please define for me exactly what "lethargic" and "pale" are, I would really appreciate it. I couldn't have slept for more than 10 minutes at a time on Friday night. I woke up just to listen to see if Howie was still making his snuffly little breathing noises. The next day he was acting perfectly normally - running around, eating just fine, playing with Gus, romping in the yard. Around 1:30pm he settled in for his afternoon nap.

Well, his sleeping looked an awful lot like lethargy to me... and his gums were pale pink... so I decided that I just could not take the whole waiting game any more and brought him in to the emergency clinic. The vet saw us right away, checked Howie out, and proclaimed him fit as a fiddle. Between little crying jags, I was able to ask if she was sure that he was going to be okay, if other dogs had eaten poison and lived, if there was anything I should be doing, and just how pale is pale. She was very patient, answered all my questions, cuddled Howie, and then reassured me (a few times) that Howie was going to be just fine. She gave me a week's worth of vitamin K pills, which are coagulants, just in case any trace amounts of the poison (which acts as an anti-coagulant) had managed to stick around, and sent us on our way.

So, happy ending to a very nerve-wracking incident. Howie has been his normal self all weekend. His gums are pink, he sleeps a normal puppy amount, and he is getting pretty tired of my excessive cuddling. Howie and I have now had a pretty serious discussion about why eating mouse poison is a bad thing, and I think the puppy kisses that I received at the end of the conversation were his way of saying he will be avoiding all poison-eating in the future. So, if you managed to make it to the end of this long, long story, I will now leave you with a couple pictures of Lord Howard Maxwell "Poison-Eater" Beseler Thompson. Good night!