Reneging On Our Deal

Years ago, for some reason, I thought it was a good idea to watch Marley and Me. I'm not sure why I thought this was a good way to spend a Friday night. If you're a dog owner/lover, I would advise you to remove it from your Netflix Queue immediately.
I got two takeaways from this movie.

An ugly cry.

And a tall order for Namath - he was not allowed to die.

He's done a stellar job of upholding his part of the deal. Not so much as a flea bite. Sunday night he decided to stick his toe on the line.

After a full afternoon of panting and anxiety that led into an evening of panting and more anxiety, I camped out on the couch to see if he would lay down and go to sleep. By 2 a.m. it was time to make a tough call - wait out the night and take him to his vet in the morning, or head to the emergency vet. By this time Google had convinced me his stomach was twisted into his lungs, he was deathly allergic to his pills and I was certain each breath would be his last - so we packed up for the vet.

Never one to give up control, it was quite the struggle to get his blood drawn and get his IV in to bring down his 105 degree fever. When the doctor called us back to show us the x-ray, all I heard was we should hope for kidney stones, because if it wasn't that, we were looking at something very serious, possibly lymphoma. We got to visit him all hooked up to the IV and doped out before we left. Heartbreaking.

I cried all the way home, cried myself to sleep for 20 minutes, texted all my friends to say a quick prayer and got up to pick him up as soon as they opened to take him for an ultrasound at his regular vet, praying desperately for kidney stones.

After an accident in the car that I was sure was a sign of his imminent death, we arrived at the vet and got back to see him pretty quickly. He examined the x-ray and bloodwork, did his own exam and finally determined, at worst, he has a colon infection requiring some simple antibiotics.

And some active culture yogurt.

We were beyond relieved and went home to rest. By rest, I mean serve as witness to the five hour fire alarm inspection conveniently scheduled in our complex Monday.

I've been playing Jamie Lee Curtis and spoon feeding him yogurt and drafting something in writing in case he decides to pull out on our deal again.