As I write this at 8:30 at night, I am waiting for my daughter to get back from the pet store, gearing up for the fight I know we’re going to have as soon as she gets back.
It’s not that she’s coming home with a pet we haven’t given her permission to have (been there, done that, with three rabbits, a guinea pig, a kitten, two frogs and four hermit crabs over the last four years), but one of our three dogs, Daisy, cut the top of her paw between two of her toes this evening. After some searching, we found the cone we keep on hand. It looked pretty shabby. In fact, it’s really not a cone anymore, but kind of a misshapen mountain peak with a narrow caldera on top.
My daughter is convinced we need to toss Daisy into the car and head for the 24/7 emergency vet about an hour away. I am not. Daisy’s not bleeding out; she’s not crying in pain; she’s not even limping. Yes, the cut looks a little deep, but there’s no bone showing. I’ve sent my daughter to get us another cone and some other supplies. When Kayla gets back, we’ll probably have a fight over whether to take Daisy to the emergency vet. Vets cost a lot as it is; emergency vets are even more expensive.
My husband agrees with me that we are going to bandage the paw, put the cone on the dog and then see what things are like in the morning. (He had to work tonight.) If Daisy’s doing bad at that point, he’ll be able to drop her off at the vet’s office then. Hopefully the dog won’t need the vet at all.
We have used the emergency vet before. Years ago, with a different set of dogs, one of our dogs tore the ear on the other dog by stepping on it while they were playing. Of course, this happened on a Saturday morning. That was the day we learned that ears are very vascular, and they don’t bandage well at all. To fix a torn ear properly, the vet has to do full surgery, with anesthesia. That was that particular dog’s first Very Expensive Vet Bill. The same dog’s second Very Expensive Vet Bill came the afternoon she decided to eat a box of golden raisins. Grapes are toxic to dogs, and raisins are concentrated grapes. I got home that day from work about 5:45, took one look at the box of raisins, and threw two dogs, one 10-year-old and myself into the car, high-tailing it to the emergency vet about 30 minutes away. By the time they reached her, she was already past the narrow window a vet usually has to get the raisins out before they cause serious harm. But this particular dog truly lived a charmed life. She was saved from the raisins by a sock. We have no idea how long the sock had been in her stomach, but it pre-dated the raisins. This accidentally "medicinal" sock blocked the raisins from being absorbed into her body. Even the vet tech was giggling about that one.
I really don’t know why emergencies are so inconsiderate; you’d think at least once in a lifetime they would occur at a convenient hour. Once you make it through them, though, they certainly make great story fodder!
And for the record, there was no fight – instead, my sweet daughter got the cone on the dog and then took the misshapen cone and put it on herself to try to help the dog not be afraid. It didn’t work, but it was a noble effort.
Do you have any emergency vet story, emergency room visit, or mechanical failure you have been able to use in your writing?
