Sicky.

I don't think two weeks have gone by in the past six months that I've had my dogs Hyphen and Sash that we haven't been hustling them to the emergency doggie hospital or the vet's for one thing or another. The latest is an incident with Hyphen.

My little boy is very hearty and never reacts fearfully to anything except for the smell of smoke, let alone has anything ever fazed him pain-wise.

Hyphen at 5 weeks.

Suddenly, today, he ate his lunch and started shrieking, vomiting and losing control of his body. He crawled into my lap and contracted, vomiting and biting my hand. I bundled him into his carrier and we got him to see a doctor quickly. During his examination, he was ultra-limp and lethargic, but only had one more seizure of pain. The doctor thought it could be a parasite or a common disease, or possibly an obstruction (we have let them chew rawhides lately...surprise, another widely used doggie device that can be deadly).

We had to leave him (he was perking up some as we departed) overnight, and later heard nothing was seen to be obstructing him and all his tests were negative; a section of his small intestine is too straight, indicating extreme gas or something else, and that seems to be the source of his pain—it's incredible how his reaction could've been due to gas. I will believe that when he's returned in perfect health with no other explanation. Maybe it was "gas" if he secretly ate something rotten during his walk that we failed to see—food poisoning, not regular gas.

Regardless, I'll probably be out of pocket $1,500 or more until his doggie insurance kicks in.

Strangely, just yesterday I noted to my nephew that I'd spent far too much time hailing cabs for doggie emergencies. More strangely, I had a little conversation with Hyphen, who was exceptionally babyish, and told him that I would always be around to protect him and would pay whatever it took to take care of him. These kinds of conversations are frequent when you have someone who doesn't talk back and only grasps the barest essentials of what you might be saying ("good" and "bad"). You tend to babble while trying to think of new things to say.

Hyphen in the E.R., stoic and loved.

Either I saw it coming or he was telegraphing impending distress, but we were on the same page.

I hope he'll be okay. He's from a family of Buddhists but is an atheist, so don't pray for him. But we can hope.

PUPDATE: Hyph didn't have a blockage that could be seen, and was released today. He has poodle-looking legs due to the shaved areas for his IVs and is superspooked and not himself yet. But they say he will be fine. He's on bland dog food. Apparently, his system was very upset by something—maybe he grabbed spoiled food off the street or found something that wasn't "lost" in the apartment?—and that backed up his system wildly. So basically, it's $1,500 for bad gas and constipation. Hopefully, that will be the worst/end of it. It's heart-breaking to see him so scared and disoriented.