Our first scare

First off – for anyone reading this who doesn’t want to read the entire post, know that Jasper is alive and well and safe and sound and healthy.

BUT our “OMG what is happening here” started last Wednesday evening into early Thursday. It was a normal day. Or maybe not. Jasper vomited on Monday. She hadn’t done that in a long while so I didn’t think much of it. She was fine at daycare Tuesday. Wednesday evening I got home from work and she pooped in the house while I was changing. She has NEVER pooped in the house. Never once. I was annoyed but then we went for our walk and I saw she was not feeling the greatest. She always nips grass so I can’t tell if that is a stomach thing or a Jasper thing. Her poo was slightly off and really stinky! We had dinner… all was fine but she was rather mellow (again, odd for Jasper).

Thursday – 4 a.m. – I feel her walking around the bed. I beg her to settle and let me sleep 30 more minutes. She isn’t having it. Up we go and outside. She has the loudest gas / fart I have ever heard from a dog (I am sure that scared off the coyotes). It also scared Jasper so she would no longer poop but I could tell she needed to and again, not normal poop. I give her breakfast, go for a run, we go for another walk and she poops (again). Now this is really not feeling normal for us.

I’m about to leave for work and she dashes to the bathroom and refuses to leave. What is about my bathroom and that purple bath mat that is so appealing to dogs that don’t feel well. When Shelby was recovering from her amputation, that was her spot. It’s a tiny bathroom too.

Off to the vet for Jasper. And then I start to freak out. I go to the dark side. What if she ate something that was toxic? What if she is really sick? What if, what if, what if??? I did my very best to stay off Dr. Google. But I was slowly losing my mind. Thanks to Michelle who talked me off the ledge and calmed me down. And thanks to Holly who gave me some breathing exercises. And to everyone else who responded to my post on the forums and indulged me even though Jasper is not a tripawd.

The lab results showed nothing. I went to pick her up and we still needed a stool sample so I made her walk and walk with her to get her to poop. She has diarrhea – not really sure why she felt the need to hold that in ALL day. And home we go with some meds, a dog with a leaky booty and a super exhausted mom who had spent over 3 hours in her car that day.

Home – and the whining begins.  The parallels between Jasper and Shelby’s illnesses was eerie. When Shelby first came home as a tripawd, she would pace and whine. Jasper just lay on the floor moaning, groaning and whining. It sucks when you can’t comfort them. It sucks even worse when they won’t even let you touch their tail or booty to wipe off the moisture.

Friday morning still acting slightly off but better. I have no choice but to leave her so off to work I went. I left work exactly on time and one hour later, I was home and greeted at the door with a happy, eyes sparkling, tail wagging Jasper Lily! She was feeling MUCH better. The vet had called me earlier with the news that there was nothing unusual to report in her stool sample. A big ole (expensive) case of “we’ll never know”. She probably ate something on our walks or licked something she shouldn’t have or gotten into something at the dog park. But she was on the mend and that was all that mattered.

We survived! It was probably harder on me as I had flashbacks to Shelby being at the vet for one thing and then learning she had cancer! Obviously my mind was racing all over the place. I hadn’t shared this with anyone but I was signed up to run a 5K race on Saturday. Now a 5K race isn’t a huge distance that requires a lot of training but I had been training to “race” it (as in go as fast as I could and break some records for me). For those that know my story, I was a distance runner before Shelby got sick. I lost my running mojo while dealing with Shelby’s illness and then after she passed, I was only running for health and fitness – not for races or time. Slowly, I have come back to wanting to really train again.

So of course, in my mind I was thinking – why this week?!? Why is the universe testing me? Should I not run Saturday? But my coach knew I was running. He had trained me to do well in this race. I knew I couldn’t back out because I would feel tremendous personal disappointment and risk disappointing him with a “BS excuse”. Bottom line – Jasper was home. If she was home, she was safe and there was absolutely no excuse NOT to run this race. (Not even the cold that was coming on).

So I drugged myself up on cold meds, got a good night’s rest, made Jasper sleep on the floor in case she wanted to pace or poop or do anything that would disturb my rest if she was in my bed. I got up, walked my dog, got myself ready and put myself in the right mindset for what I was about to do. I showed up for the race. I focused on me. My race. My time. My goals. And I smashed them all. I ran the 5K (3.1 miles) in 21:38 (a little less than 7 min miles). I came in 1st in my age division. I came in 4th overall female. And I felt great.

And then I got home and my dog was smiling, resting on the couching, ready for her walk (we always walk after my runs so she recognized the outfit). And we played the day away … fetch, fetch, fetch.

I learned a valuable lesson about me; the growth I have made in the past almost 3 years since Shelby has been gone, the ability to ask for help and support from friends to take some of the burden off me, the mind over matter is a powerful thing and sheer ambition.

Sadly, I did get the cold that was going around … probably due to stress, the race, and psycho LA weather. But thankfully, I had a good snuggle pup to nurse me back on the weekend. And today … she is happy, healthy and fine. So we survived the vet scare of 2017 AND used up our health insurance deductible for the year but hope we don’t have to have anymore medical expenses!

Snuggles on the floor the night she got home from the vet. She didn’t want me to snuggle her but I think she liked knowing I was there.

Madre, I see you are resting on the couch. Might I offer you this ball to throw for me?

I’ve said it before – this dog has the creepiest grin but she does love her dog park time!