From our walk on October 11th. There were children and adults loading into a car of the right-hand side of the street, which had Ember's attention.
October 12th was Canadian Thanksgiving. I'm hoping my neighbEsors to the North had a wonderful holiday. I gave it my nod of acknowledgement, and I'm finally letting go of my traditional Thanksgiving (Canada) to Thanksgiving (US) Facebook gratitude posts.
Why? Probably mostly because SparkPeople is back, and I have a daily gratitude practice going on over there, and don't feel the need for the six and a half week long exercise.
We lived through the week, collecting a fecal sample that's required by Ember's daycare on Thursday morning. I wasn't worried about it, just grateful she produced in the rain on Thursday morning so I could drop it off.
Normally it takes them a couple of days before we have results. The daycare requires a clean fecal test once a year. And that year rolls around in October.
I had Ember booked for an extra day in daycare, Friday, for the family trip up to Omaha for a visit to the Kiewit Luminarium. We managed to fit five of us into DIL's car. It was an amazing day, if an exhausting one. The big feature was my phone running out of power! I kept turning it off to try to preserve power.
When we got back to town, and I plugged my phone into my car's charger, I discovered that the vet's office had been trying to call me, and left voice mail (that I didn't have enough power to call and collect), so I just drove straight there.
Turns out her sample was not clean, it was positive for coccidia! She's banned from daycare while we medicate her and re-test! I looked it up online today (I was too exhausted Friday night) and it lines right up with her having eaten crap on her walks in the past couple of weeks!
Saturday and Sunday both were too chilly for our usual schedule of walking, and the walk had to be delayed until about 10 a.m. This resulted in Ember not taking her morning nap... actually in not taking crate time until after dinner before last call! Which messed up MY schedule for the day, too, as my usual "do human stuff" time is while she's napping in her crate, after the walk.
Yeah, I know, wah-wah-wah!
Saturday morning, Ember decided she wanted the pumpkin she just sniffed at a week ago, and she picked it up, destroyed the stem, carried it across the street and proceeded to carve it with her teeth and eat the pumpkin! Just like a squirrel would have done!
Anyway, mortified, once I got her home, I went over, rang the doorbell of the house with the pumpkin, apologized for Ember's behavior and offered to pay for the pumpkin. The lady was very kind and had a sense of humor about the whole thing. She would not take my money for the pumpkin, just matter of factly placed it back where it had been, and sent us on our way, thanking me for coming forward with the story.
Sunday morning, I woke up at 3 and couldn't get back to sleep. On that 10 a.m. walk, I took a fall, crossing a residential street. Ember behaved very well, when I fell, it jerked her leash, she barked once, then noticed I was down and came over to check on me. I told her "Oops, Mommy fell. Help Mommy get back up." And she stood guard while I did. After checking to make sure all my parts were still functional, I said, "We'd better take Mommy straight home." And we did. I was more mentally shook up. I do have a couple of skin scrapes, but we walked home just fine, ending with a shorter time and distance than "normal".
We went out again to drop donations off, and to go to the doggy-treat store (she earned it, but we were running low anyway), and a stop at the grocery store for a couple of items. I bought her a pumpkin of her own, and put it in the back yard. Later in the day, she discovered it and wasn't sure it was allowed to be played with. But I assured her this one was hers, and she went to town on it. If I have a pumpkin patch in my backyard next year, we'll know where it came from.
The Ember's exclusive all-you-can-eat pumpkin buffet.
Monday morning, thankfully, I'm awake and with few "aftereffects" of the fall on Sunday. The plan is to treat myself gently, and encourage Ember to treat me gently, too!
Life is still good. Spark on!
Thank you, it was a quiet Thanksgiving as now it was just the two of us, no Tigger but we were very thankful that we got to be her pet parents. She was an amazing girl. Oh, that would have been scary walking home from your fall, glad to hear that you are recovering well. Hope Ember's next test is all clean once more. Good to know they are on top of that sort of thing. As always it was wonderful to catch up with you and to see the pictures of Ember having fun with her own pumpkin. Have a wonderful week!
ReplyDeleteI talked to the vet this morning, and he said there were not a LOT of the parasites, just a couple in the sample, and he figures the medication he prescribed for a week should do the job. I'll keep her home this week, then after all the meds have been taken, take a fresh sample in Friday morning. If all is well, she'll be back in daycare the following Tuesday.
DeleteI, too, am glad they keep a sharp eye out for these things.
Glad your Thanksgiving was a good one, even if a little "echo-y" with Tigger gone.
It's very good news that your fall did not result in any type of injury that would prevent you from getting back up on your own. I must say that's a very responsible doggy daycare you have for Ember. I had no idea that dogs liked pumpkin, but what about those seeds?
ReplyDeleteMaureen from California
I don't know about the seeds. Google says they can have them in moderation, as long as they are raw. Which obviously, coming straight from a breached pumpkin, they would be.
DeleteThe things I've seen say pumpkin pie is not good for dogs, simply because of the spices and sugar, not because of the pumpkin or eggs.
Oh Barb. I am so sorry that happened to you. It . . . is . . . totally . . . scary when you FEEL yourself tumbling down and there's nothing you can do to stop the fall. GOOD GIRL, Ember. She looked after he Hu-Mom. Our fur babies really prove themself when they see we need them. I am so relieved you were not seriously hurt. HUGS
ReplyDeleteAnd that was so nice of the pumpkin owner to be so gracious about Ember's behavior. There ARE good people in this world!
Take good care. I am soooooooo cautious when walking outdoors. I do not want another fall! And I know you don't, either.
hugs
barb
I dragged my feet (figuratively, NOT literally) about going out to walk today because of the fall yesterday! And I did go back to examine the site, and turns out there's a crack in the asphalt perpendicular to the path I was walking, and about a 1 inch difference in height (going up in the direction I was walking). I tripped over the lip of a crack!
DeleteAnyway, all's well that ends well as long as the requisite lesson is learnt!
PHOENIX1949
ReplyDeleteGlad your senior acrobats event was not too bad. Good that Ember stood by her HuMom instead of taking off.
Voted early today in person instead of the usual mail-in ballot. Left home about 10A and back by 11A.
Susan, Central Texas
Thank you for doing your civic duty! I continue to be "OK", and am very grateful for Ember sticking with me. That would have been truly awful if she ran off into danger while I was on the ground!
DeleteAha, I'm just now reading this. Now I understand the lack of daycare. Yep, dogs and doo. Oscar had a thing for cat poo.
ReplyDeleteOne day, we left the house to get into the car to go to the vet. He snatched that danged thing in the mulch like a shark on a seal. He stood there with it dangling from his front teeth and would not let go. Like a gross cigar.
I guess I yelled "Drop it!" enough that he did. DD2 was in stitches. Now what do we do with a dog that smelled like cat $#!t? Lucky us, he's eat anything green. She grabbed a handful of mint growing nearby and teased him with it until he chewed it down.
The result?
A dog whose breath smelled like MINTY cat$#!t.
LOL! Minty cat scat! I have a strange "smeller"... I think iris and cat pee smell very similar!
DeleteToday I dropped by the vet's office to pick up another collection tube for tomorrow morning. Ember's last medication done was delivered with her supper a couple of hours ago, so tomorrow mornings "sample" will be delivered for a retest. I sure hope it passes muster, 'cause I need those days "off" as much as she needs them "on".
Seriously, she's been very good dealing with the normal human things. Today we had a plumber here to do the annual check, and she went right into the crate (we had just got home from our walk) and was a good, quiet girl while I vacuumed. She napped through my workout, too.
Ah well!