keith

Ever have one of those paydays where it's almost all gone before you even get home from the bank?

Yeah.

Well Saturday afternoon I noticed that the tail end of Leeroy's stool was really loose. Then later that evening he wouldn't eat his dinner, and acted really lethargic.

Sound familiar? My first thought was that the sickly pound puppy from a few weeks ago had left some nasty bug in our house that infected poor Leeroy.

We debated whether to take him to the emergency vet, but it being close to midnight Saturday... the night before Easter... so we just verified with his previous owner that he had had his parvo shot and decided to wait and see. We thought maybe it was just the sudden change in food -- his previous owner had fed him Kibbles n' Bits, but was out of it, so we fed him Beneful because we already had a bag of that. Well Sunday he threw up a bit, had some more diarrhea, and wouldn't eat his breakfast. But then Sunday evening he seemed better, ate all his dinner, didn't throw up, and didn't have any more diarrhea.

This morning he had a normal stool, but had thrown up in his kennel during the night and wouldn't eat his breakfast. So we decided to take him to the vet.

Of course their first thought too was "Parvo", so they ran a parvo test ($40), then a test for worms ($40). Both of those were negative, thank god, and so it was concluded that the sudden change of food had upset the pH balance of his intestinal system, causing a bacteria imbalance in his intestines. So he got an antibiotic shot in his butt, along with another round of vaccinations for every disease ever -- rabies, distemper, parvovirus, giardia, coronavirus -- plus some antibiotics to take home. All in all, $250. But hey, he was free and we love him.

Then I had to take the car to the shop to get the brakes checked up after what happened Friday. Also got the oil, all the filters, and the wiper blades changed, and the tires rotated, then something or other done to the rear master brake cylinder.. all in all another $350, but all things that were sorely needed and long procrastinated.

So I don't really feel bad about any of it, it's just.. damn, they don't tell you jack shit about life in high school, do they? I sure don't remember any class where they said, "And sometimes, class, you might have to look at the electricity or the water bill and talk with your wife about it, 'Well, it's due on the 28th, so they probably won't shut us off before the 1st if we call them and tell them we'll be late..'".

C'est la vie. Beats the alternative!

P.S. He was even cute when the vet was working on him. They had to take two different fecal samples from him, plus measure his temperature with a rectal thermometer. He was perfectly calm until the last one, which was like a looonggg cotton swab that she had to wiggle around a bit in there, to which he responded with the most uncomfortable sounding AWWWOO-OOH-OOH! Sounded like a sound Courage the Cowardly Dog would make. Awwww. Poor guy.