Big Dog

I was supposed to head out to New York this past week, but plan change really quickly in my life.  Well, then how was my week spent?  Writing?  Nope.  Reading?  Nope, not that either.  My week was spent dealing with my dog, Champion, an almost 9 year old, English Mastiff. 

Mastiff Sourse

He’s beautiful, friendly, and my buddy.  Tuesday afternoon he started acting on the funny side.  Now to some you are asking what that means.  Well, he didn’t greet me when I got home to start.  That is very strange as he is usually waiting at the door with his face pressed to the window, wiggly butt moving fast and furious to and fro with the strength of his rope like tail.  I had to go and find him, lying in the hallway.  Then when I greeted him, all I got was one measly thump of his tail.  I was instantly concerned.  I made dinner and as we sat to eat, he didn’t come running.  Here’s a secret that I hope my husband does not read (he doesn’t usually check my blog so I should be safe) I don’t eat my meat.  I sneak it under the table to my dogs.  They know it and the moment I sit down they are waiting at my feet for the first tidbit to arrive.  Champ didn’t come to the table.  I could see him still in the hall.  After dinner I took him a piece of chicken in which he took, but spit right out on the floor.  I started to cry.  I knew he was sick then.  Really sick as he will eat rocks if we aren’t careful. 

I called the vet, we took him right in and they had to sedate him as my normally happy friendly easygoing dog suddenly became a bit…mean.  He’s a big dog so this is a bit on the scary side to outsiders.  While he was sedated, they did x-rays and couldn’t find anything.  Then, he didn’t wake up and he didn’t wake up.  We had to leave him there for the night, again more angst from me over this.  I got a call in the middle of the night from the vet saying he was taking him over to the Animal ER as he still hadn’t come out of the sedation and they wanted someone to watch over him.  More angst more worry.  Then the next day, I called first thing, my big dog was awake, finally, but turning vicious.  Vicious?  What?  My big baby dog was vicious?  Apparently yes, they had to mussel him!  He was in serious pain and didn’t want anyone to touch him…at all.  They were trying to do more x-rays from a different angle and a surgeon was coming in.  Did I want surgery?  Yes.  What did they think it was?  It was either some type of blockage or….cancer.  Lord I about fell down, as the next breath from the Vet was, if it was cancer, did I just want them to not wake him up?  I said I didn’t know I would have to get back to him.  I then called my husband at work and cried like the big baby I was at the moment, with the thought of my big dog just not waking up.  For those of you who don’t know, my husband is a wonderful man sometimes.  He calmed me down, and said, that before I freaked out we should wait and see what they found. 

So surgery was done early Wednesday afternoon.  It was not cancer.  It was a corncob.  A whole one.  He had swallowed it down whole and it got lodged down in tummy.  I took a photo of it for the blog, just so you all could see it, but I have been told that is just gross.  So, no photo.  I have been praised on my astuteness, as I caught it extremely early, before he was even in any kind of pain, but surgery would still have been needed regardless.  I was just lucky I caught it when I did as he went down fast and added to that, he didn’t respond well to sedation.  He would have been dead in a day or so. 

What that all means is I have done nothing at all since Tuesday this week.  My weekend was spent as a dog nurse.  I am happy to say the big dog is doing well, and is happy to be home with his family.  He’s on a strict diet so I will have to be eating my own meat for the next week or so, unless I can figure out a way to stash it in my napkin….well see.

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Oh one more thing before I head out.  As you can see along the right side of my blog is a new Facebook LIKE button.  I am not all that techie so for anyone that has not yet “liked” Shadow Dancer on Facebook, if someone would be so good as to give the button a poke I would greatly appreciate it.  I think I set it up properly and it’s working, but I can’t really tell. 

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And finally, I did a guest blog HERE   If you are interested in receiving a free copy of my book, Shadow Dancer, there is a contest running with the post.