This would be a lot easier...

... if Daddy would just buy us a swimming pool!

Bama... The Wonder Dog... Part II

A little over a week ago now, I came home to see Bama over in the side of the yard crouched down looking like she was eating something. I figured it was yet another tennis ball that she managed to tear apart and honked the horn at her. She jumped up and no, it was not a tennis ball. Out of the side of her mouth, I saw a tail. And not just any tail, a rat tail... I happened to be on the phone with Nana and said, "Nana, Bama is eating a rat! I'll call you back!". Not the smartest thing I could have said to her, but I panicked. I drove my vehicle straight at her thinking she might drop it as she ran from me. No such luck. I threw it in park, jumped out and just as I lunged to try to grab her, she swallowed the dang thing whole! I could have died. I immediately flipped out my phone and called Trey. "Your dog just swallowed a bleepity-bleep rat!" He just laughed and said something about living in the country. That night, she stayed outside and we made sure Maison did not get any Bama kisses. I thought it was over... but oh how wrong I was.

Over the next few days, I thought she seemed sluggish and not herself. I told Trey, but he thought I was crazy. I told myself it was just the medicine we were still giving her for her ears. Then, Wednesday night, we had another night of her wanting to go outside numerous times in the middle of the night. Thursday night, same thing, plus Maison was on her 2nd night in a row having screaming nightmares. I finally got her settled and laid in my bed right before 5:00 to catch about 45 minutes sleep before I had to get up for work. Trey was already up and in the bathroom when I heard this odd noise and then smelled an awful, awful stinch. I turned on the lamp and Bama was crouched by the door standing over a pile of doggie puke. I got up and there was another, even bigger pile at the foot of our bed. I just burst into tears. I was so tired from two nights of toddler nightmares and a barking dog, that the last thing I needed right then was to be cleaning my carpet at 5 am. Trey helped me get the mess cleaned up and left for work as I was spot cleaning the floor. That was when Maison woke up again screaming for me to lay down with her. It was definitely a Calgon moment.

I got to work and could not shake the feeling that the odd behavior and vomitting were not from the ear medicine, but had something to with that dang rat. My thought was that the nasty vermin was carrying some disease and infected my sweet puppy. I called the vet and they said to bring her in because she may have an obstruction. I got Bama to the vet and the vet predicted a few different scenarios:

1. There was an undigested rat in Bama's stomach. (Eww...) Would need surgery to remove rat. ($$$$)
2. Her digestive system was irritated from digesting the rat or it still being there and she had pancreatitis and might need to be hospitalized and put on IV fluids. ($$$$)
3. The rat had ingested poison and therefore, Bama had ingested poison.

I noticed the vet did not say what we would have to do for Option #3 and when I asked, she said "We'll talk about that later if need be." So, I burst into tears. They said the $230 worth of tests they need to run would take a couple of hours and they would call me when they were finished. I proceed to go to Wal-Mart for my weekly grocery trip and cried my way through produce and the meat department. By the time I got to dairy, I had finally stopped crying. Which was good, because my fellow Wal-Mart shoppers were beginning to stare...

When the phone rang as I was unloading my groceries, my heart sank... Please don't be Option #3, PLEASE!!!! The x-rays showed that she had actually digested the rat (again, eww...), but the toll it took on her digestive tract caused pancreatitis. And her blood work showed she had some signs of poisoning, but it seemed mild. So, I could go get her and as long as she did not throw up again, I would not have to put her in the puppy hospital. They sent us home with three prescriptions and some special "easy on the tummy" dog food. I gave them $398.55... that's a fair trade, right?

She did pretty good that night. Went out a couple of times. I thought we were in the clear. Saturday afternoon, Maison and I were playing on the front porch and I noticed a pile in the flower bed. I gave her the anti-nausea medicine because I did not want to have to take her to the after hours emergency vet ($$$$). Sunday, she seemed a lot more like herself. She still rested a lot, but I saw some spunk coming back. Last night was the first night in almost a week that my entire family slept through the night! Of course, my internal mommy clock woke me up at hour to hour and a half intervals, but at least I did not have to get up to console a screaming child or clean-up a nasty mess!

I have learned a lot over the last couple of weeks:

1. If the dog is acting weird, take her to the vet.
2. I should have gone to vet school... $$$$!

Happy Easter Bunny...

I think I can officially declare this Easter as the first holiday that Maison had truly "gotten it". Sparky & I explained to her the night before that the Easter Bunny would come while she was asleep and bring her a basket of goodies. The next morning she came in our room and we told her the Easter Bunny had come in the middle of the night. Her eyes grew wide and she said "Easa Bunny bing me a bassett!", jumped off the bed and ran toward the living room. She was very excited to see the basket and laughed hysterically as she pulled each item out. It was a much different reaction than we had at Christmas. She was thrilled to see what Santa brought her, but I never felt like she realized the gifts under the tree were from Santa Claus. Not to mention that she was thoroughly confused over BeBe, Poppa J, Bubbie, Rach and Maw Maw all in their PJ's sitting in a semi-circle watching her first thing in the morning...



Now, the Easter Bunny is my new favorite friend. I want her to eat, I tell her the Easter Bunny wants her to eat her food. I want her to sleep, she goes night night for the Easter Bunny. She acts up, I tell her I am going to call the Easter Bunny. That rabbit is my new hero. Last night, she was in a foul mood and kept throwing things in the house. So I broke out the big guns and threatened to call the Easter Bunny while he was vacationing with Santa Claus... As she was drifting off to sleep, she said, "Easa Bunny no come tonight!" I replied, "That's right baby, he and Santa are sitting on the beach in Mexico resting up for next year!" She shook her head yes in reply and faded off to Dreamland... Sorry, Cinderella, but you have been knocked off your pedestal for the time being!


On a more serious note regarding the true meaning of Easter, she seemed to "get" that too. We went to church that morning. Scott and his mother, Martha, sat in front of us and BeBe and Poppa J were right behind us. Maison went to the front for children's church and although I went with her and we sat in the front pew, she did not cry and listened intently to the preacher. When he finished reading this book (which I thought was awesome and will make sure my fave rabbit remembers to put it in next year's basket) she even went to the front to accept the coloring page he offered her. After we went back to our seats, the sermon started and I must admit, I was not listening intently because I was too busy making sure she did not spill the baggie of Cheerios we brought with us to appease her during the service. The preacher's voice was kind of like Charlie Brown's teacher to me... "waaa waa wa John the Baptist wa waa wa waa"... and Maison looks at me and says "John, Mommy!" So that snapped my attention back to the sermon because I realized if she could eat Cheerios and hear the minister at 2 years old, I should be able to keep her from spilling them and listen as well. The sermon went on to describe the scene when Peter found Mary Magdalene weeping at the empty tomb of Jesus. When Robbie said Peter's name, that innocent little child said "Peter, Mommy!" I was amazed. Then he started talking about Mary Magdalene weeping at the tomb and she looked at me and said "Her crying." At this point Uncle Scott turned around a looked at me with a look that said "Maw Maw is right, she really is a genius!" Later that morning, we called Bella (my mom) to wish her a Happy Easter and Maison told her all about church and even said, "Shesus (Jesus) coming." I guess she really did understand the minister saying He came back from the dead for us. Sometimes it truly amazes me at what she picks up on.

The Monkey and the Hippopotamus...

Dinner table conversation after Daddy and Maison's play time while Mommy prepares dinner ~
Maison: Mommy's a monkey!
Daddy laughs.
Mommy: I'm not a monkey! I'm a mommy! Did you teach her that?
Daddy snickers, looks appalled that I would even suggest such a thing and shoves a bite of dinner in his mouth to avoid further conversation.
Maison: You're not a monkey!
Mommy: That's right baby... But Daddy is a hippopotamus!
Maison: You're a pot-a-pot-a-puss, Daddy!
Mommy laughs.
Daddy looks appalled again.
Mommy laughs more.
Daddy: Mommy's a monkey!
Maison: Nuh-uh, Daddy! You're a pot-a-pot-a-puss!
Mommy: A hairy pot-a-pot-a-puss!
Maison: Yeah, Daddy!
Maison and Mommy give each other "knuckles".
Score one for Mommy!

Bama... The Wonder Dog

So, for about the last month (actually probably a lot longer, but it makes me feel like a bad pet parent to admit it) Bama has been shaking her head and scratching behind her ear. It is loud... those floppy lab ears and her dog tags rattling when she shakes her head at 3 am will bring us out of a dead sleep. Monday night, she does it repeatedly to the point that I thought Trey was going to beat her when he shot up out of the bed. He let her outside and we listened to her bark for another 2 hours until it was time to get up. I get to work tired and needing a coffee IV and tell my co-workers about the head shaking/ear scratching loudness that kept us awake all night. My boss looks at me and says "Umm, Melissa, you need to take her to the vet. She probably has ear mites!" Naturally my next step was to Google "dog ear mites" and self-diagnose this is what she has... I am horrible... She is in pain and I am yelling at her to stop shaking her dang head. I go home that night and check her ears. I won't go into detail about the grossness that it involved. Called the vet yesterday morning and explained said grossness... Vet said it sounded more like a yeast infection in the ear. Trey took her yesterday and $182.30 later, we were diagnosed with a canine yeast infection of the ear canal. Which, according to the vet, Google and my coworkers is quite common in dogs with floppy ears... Who knew? Trey comes home with the credit card slip to pay for the vet visit, cytology, three prescription pills, ointment and an ear irrigation system. We have a 12 day regimen (2 times a day) to get rid of this infection and then we will have to irrigate her ears at least every other week in an attempt to prevent recurrence.
It gets better: 2 o'clock this morning, Bama is whimpering in our room. Trey does not hear her over his snoring and I am ignoring her because I think she is just whimpering because her ears ache and I don't want to yell at her to be quiet since I already feel like a bad doggie mom... Then I hear her peeing on my flipping bedroom floor. I punch a snoring Trey and jump out of the bed saying "She's peeing on the floor!" The Snore King says "The vet said the medicine would make her have to pee a lot!" You have got to be kidding me! He could have told me this before bed so I would have let her out instead of thinking she was just whining. Trey lets her out then he climbs back in the bed and is snoring again before I ever even get the first spray of carpet cleaner on the carpet...
So, the moral of this story is two-fold:
If your dog starts shaking his/her head and scratching at the ears excessively, call me and I will explain the grossness so you can see if you need to pay a visit to the vet.
If you ever get yeast infection medicine for your dog, make sure you let them out as soon as they start whining!

Big Girl Bed

Over the weekend, Maison got a big girl bed. It is a full size mattress and box spring. We just have it sitting on the floor for now because the conversion kit for her crib has not come in yet. On Sunday, she was visiting with Maw Maw, so I set the bed up with her sheets, comforter and, as Trey puts it, all those gazillion pillows you don't really need. BeBe brought her home from Maw Maw's and Trey and I took her in her room to see her new Big Girl Bed. It was hysterical. She was in awe! She looked at me and said, "Mommy, it's my big girl bed!" I said, "Yes, baby, it is!" Then she said, "Mommy, it pretty!" It brought tears to my eyes. My little baby is no longer a baby... and she appreciated the gazillion unnecessary pillows...

Nights 1 & 2 in the bed went great. She fussed once the first night after getting tangled up in the blanket, but that was pretty much it. And she has been going down without a fight at all. Last night was night 3... I woke up at 2:52 am and realized I had not heard her all night. So I went to check on her and almost stepped on the child. Somehow she had gotten out of the bed and was sleeping on the floor in the doorway to her room. I scooped her up and put her back in the bed. I think we are going to have to start closing the gate from the hall to the living room so that she is not wandering the house in the middle of the night!