Fur baby madness

The last two days have been an exercise in. . . well, lots of things. Patience, for one. Preparation for motherhood is on the list, too. If you can think of other good descriptors, bring it on. . .

Maddie - she's our blue heeler - decided to pick up some sort of nasty bacteria sometime on Tuesday. I spent the better part of the part of the night usually designated for sleeping cleaning up, well, Maddie poo. She evidently had "dietary indiscretion," which translates into $180 at the vet and a lot of antibiotics. I've been spoon feeding her prescription dog food for the last couple of days with a shot of vanilla yogurt on the side to get this bacteria situation under control. Just as things were looking up for Maddie, things started looking grim for Dasha.

Dasha - she's our brindle baby - also had dietary indiscretion. Dasha chose to ingest Dusty Miller, a type of ground cover plant. Again, the time most people spent in their beds last night, I was cleaning up copious amounts of vomit. Around 3:30 in the morning, Dasha woke me up with a surprise. Thanks, babe. By the time I got everything cleaned up and was ready to crawl back into bed, she got sick again. This is where the story gets good.

I discovered that Dasha had eaten the Dusty Miller when I scrubbed regurgitated leaves off of our bedroom floor. I hopped online to find out whether they were poisonous – the first site I came across at 4:00 am had them listed as "slightly poisonous." Uh huh. After a hurried trip to the emergency vet, an additional $180, and a lot of blood, Doug determined that the Dusty Miller is a member of the Wormwood plant family. Ever heard of that? That's where we get Absinthe. Ever heard of that? That's what Van Gogh was blasted on when he decided it was a good idea to have one ear rather than two. Needless to say, Dasha was distraught. Mommy was distraught. The bank account is distraught.

So, what's the moral of the story? Don't let your dogs eat anything other than their dog food, or you'll have a very expensive, very sleepless couple of days.