08/12/2024
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Tebow. Once again, he dodged death by dietary indiscretion.
Bless his heart, he is a Pug after all. Perhaps he was a cat in a previous life? This is the 3rd, or is it 4th? 5th? time he’s gone kamikaze by gluttony. The first time, it was cocoa powder. A dog staying with us got it off the shelf, then bailed, while our two had a party. Tebow was cocoa brown. From head to toe. I’ve never seen a dog as happy as he was when we walked through the door. He was considerably less happy a few minutes later when, aided by a little H2O2, he started heaving up mounds of cocoa slime. Activated charcoal and homeopathy got him through the rest.
The next time, it was xylitol. 53 pieces of xylitol gum, to be exact. Wanna know how I know it was 53? Because the unopened package had 55, and there were 2 left when I found him in the closet where I had all of Steve’s Christmas stocking stuff not so cleverly hidden. To be fair, the door to that room was usually closed, but we were getting some things out to go to a party (did I mention he also has great timing?)so it was open as we were going in and out. Thanks again, peroxide! You know the great thing about a dog puking up 53 pieces of gum(yes, I counted)? It smells minty fresh! Sorry/not sorry- you don’t pay me to be eloquent, you pay me to be honest- wait, you don’t pay me at all, so not sorry! 😂 we watched his blood sugar (find meaning in everything-fell in love with a diabetic, who of course has blood sugar monitors)and gave a little corn syrup a few times, and once again, he never looked back - except to never forgive me for intentionally quicking his nails to get blood.
This time, it was pelleted cat litter, and all the knowledge I’ve gained over a lifetime as an animal caregiver and professional couldn’t save us from the dreaded ER visit. A lot of fear - they advised putting him down as a viable option- 2 days in the hospital, a whole bunch of X-rays and bloodwork, multiple enemas and manual attempts to break it up, finally surgery to remove the immobile mass of pellets lodged in his colon, and more than a few thousand dollars later, he is home, and we are grateful. I’m grateful for the resources that allowed me to make the decision to do the surgery. He’ll be 13 in March- every minute is priceless💜
I have contacted the manufacturer of the pellets, asking them to please include a warning on the packaging about this possibility, which would cost them almost nothing to do, and received an expected CYA reply about how non- toxic and awesome their product is and how valuable I am as customer. So now I’m on a mission.
Thank you again, for the thoughts, prayers, reiki and good vibes shared. They counted💜🙏🏼🙌🏼
