I keep thinking that one of these nights I will get to sleep, but every night a new challenge presents itself, and usually somewhere in the middle of the night; like 2 AM middle of the night.

Last night was my dog, apparently she was feeling neglected and felt the need to get her time in the sun.  (or moon as it turns out) 

All day yesterday she refused to climb up or down the stairs.  She refused to jump on the couch or bed.  She spent a good portion of the day hiding behind the chairs, not eating, and generally just not my dog. 

I worried about her when I went to bed but as the night went on I got more and more concerned and by 1:30 AM she was crying while hiding under the bed.  I said that's it, I need to talk to a vet.  My baby is crying and I can't make her better so it's time we check with a professional.

At 2:00 AM the vet assured us that she is not in a life or death situation, but that she definetly needs to be seen by a vet.  Plus, being the emergency call it would be $99 until 8 AM which is then $79.  I opted to wait since we were assured it was not life threatening.

I got up and decided to call at a little before 8 so i could get there right away when the price dropped.  Of course I forget about the time change so it was actually a little before 9 when the call was made.  I drove as quickly as i could to the office by the airport...which was a little more than the speed limit and the stress on my dog was terrible.  The fur was flying, she could hardly relax and it seemed to take forever to get there.

I walked in and they ask me if this was Treble.  I say yes, and they say "triage, Treble is here, Triage." over the intercom.  My heart was stopping because i thought maybe there was something really wrong with her if they were rushing to the front to check on her.

I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought, because they gave me a paper to fill out (like who is the mommy for this adorable baby) They called me back and they checked her temp (the fun way) and she looked at the tech like what in the heck do you think you are doing to me.  Then she looked at me with those adorable brown eyes that said, please get me out of here.  So we walked to get her weight down the path.  the scale said 20...which when i looked questionly at the tech, she said that it was in kilograms, not pounds. I started to worry that i hadn't noticed that she lost 20 lbs recently.

Eventually the vet came to visit us and the 5 lbs she was losing in fur was floating in the air making me sneeze.  She checks out my girl and when she rubs on certian parts of his back she would cringe in pain...her lip would quiver, and she would glare at the vet. 

Then those eyes would turn back to me like, mom, I love you, but get me out of here!

They talked to me about a spine injury...a tumor...a disc...or just some inflamation in her back.  They offered to complete an x-ray, but weren't sure it would show anything, so i opted to skip that part and just went for the meds. 

They told me that I also need to keep her quiet which includes no stairs, no jumping, no running, and no walks...for 3 WEEKS!  Are they kidding?  I also have a long list of items to watch out for...high blood pressure, dragging her feet, any other neurological disorder.   It stressed me out thinking about my dog in pain.

So what would any loving mother do but ask for the vet to stress her out even farther by asking them to cut her toe nails.  Since the fur was already flying, the tongue was panting, and her breathing was intense so why not?  They took her back and brought her back with the gorgeous nails i try to get but just don't have the strength to hold her down and cut them.

I was looking at the vet, the tech, and myself and we all had a ton of fur on us.  Her stress level was so huge that we could hardly be in the room as the fur was everywhere!  After I shoved the meds down her throat and i got a nip on the finger in the process, we headed out.

While I was finishing up the visit, i talked to another family in the waiting room whose dog got into it with a coyote this morning.  It sounded like this dog was in terrible shape and it was going to spend a long time in the hospital.  The $138 bill was paid and off we went.

So I  made my way back home, with a much calmer dog, (thank goodness for medicine) and carried her up the stirs to the house...which then she ran all the way up the stairs to hide under the bed.  I guess even the best planning can't change the mind of my puppy.

So, tonight I'm looking forward to trying to sleep again...and wondering which child will work on keeping that from happening.