Riley

Our little 'fluff' has been/is ill. This past Friday afternoon, I saw him chewing on something similar to a dog biscuit but it was turquoise in color while I was out by the pool with a friend. I was curious and so I walked slowly towards him to investigate. My intuition was to take it away (which I did) but I hesitated and thought it could just be a dog treat that a neighbor up on our hill gave to him. Though, I was not entirely convinced it was anything bad...I set it aside.

Saturday was a normal day. Saturday night when we came home at about 10pm, our sitter mentioned that Riley was not acting right and that he was whinny and weak. We did not think much of it and exchanged a few "it could be...." scenarios. We thought, let's just let him rest it off.

Sunday morning, Riley would not come out of his dog house. Again, we carried on with our day's activities (away from home) and left him to rest/recuperate. We came home at 6pm that evening to find him laying off in a planter in the bushes. Jeff picked him up and decided to take him to the animal hospital. They explained the cost of running blood work and tests over night since we did not have any obvious culprits. We decided to wait to see the regular vet first thing in the morning.

Monday morning, I carried Riley in and laid him on the table (he was no longer able to walk, sit up, or stand) and they began examining him. As I said, I was not thinking that what he was chewing on Friday afternoon was lethal...but I mentioned it off-handily along with the fact that we did fertilize our lawn Saturday (but he was inside until the sprinklers were finished).

They ran a blood screening for toxins and took a chest x-ray. The blood work concluded it indeed was poison. His blood had thinned and began filling his lung cavity. They gave me a breakdown of the cost to begin treatment with a very minimal chance (he was on deaths door at that point). I called Jeff and he immediately came up from work to help me deal with all these decisions--my hero!! When he arrived home, he assessed the dire situation and took Riley back to the vet to try and reverse the effects that the poison had already done.

Riley stayed all day Monday at the vet; then we transported him to the 24-hr Animal Hospital, then back to the vet the next morning (Tues). They allowed him to come home at 5:30pm but with tubs still in for blood extraction. Wednesday morn, I took him back to the vet and they said he was clear to go home under supervision.

Today (Thursday) a friend asked to use my washer this mornings and I asked her to remove the bandages from Riley...it was a great swap of services. :-)

He seems to be doing well. I am praying that the internal damage was minimal on his little organs and that he will continue to lead a long and healthy life with us.

He turns 1 yr. on April 4th.

To my love...

Thank you for your leadership and generous love you give to all of the members of your household.

xoxo