[nagdu] Meet my new puppy!

[Debby Phillips]

Hey Matt! Congratulations on bringing home Marilyn! Yes, it does 
get better, although there are sometimes huge nose dives.  But 
then you get back up and you and Marilyn confidently move 
forward.

Nova and I just had one of those times.  Last weekend, Nova was 
very sick.  She started throwing up in the middle of the night on 
Friday.  On Saturday I worked overtime, so while I was at work, 
Craig took her to the vet.  The vet did an x ray and found 
nothing.  So we got the pepcid (in dog form) and an antibiotic.  
But she continued to not feel well.  Sunday morning, she trotted 
out to greet us all when I opened her crate.  So we thought maybe 
she was better.  It was apparent though that she was not.  We 
decided that on Monday we would take her to the vet.  But Sunday 
night as we lay in bed, both of us at the same time came to the 
conclusion that we needed to take her to the emergency vet.  They 
did blood work, and all her functions were normal.  But it was 
obvious that she was still not feeling well.  The vet said that 
we should get her back to them on Monday morning for an 
ultrasound.  I was concerned though because she was still 
throwing up.  They gave us the option of her staying there, which 
I chose.

Monday morning the ultrasound was done, and there was a foreign 
body.  Partly I was relieved, because it meant that there was no 
organ dysfunction.  There were no tumors.  We picked Nova up and 
took her to our vet.  Surgery was performed immediately, and a 
small toy dog made out of some rubber or plastic stuff, was taken 
from her small intestine.  She is doing well, though she cannot 
work until at least Tuesday after she gets checked by the vet.  
Perhaps she will be able to guide after that, or maybe a couple 
more days.  We did take her with us to a ham radio event today, 
with the vet's blessing, as long as she didn't guide me.  She was 
fine just lying under our table that we had to staff.


I still haven't figured out how or where she get this toy.  I'm 
thinking that it was perhaps on the bus, but not sure.  It's 
scary to realize how fast something like this can happen and how 
undetectable the picking up of the toy.  I'm not sure whether one 
of the little kids on the bus on Thursday gave it to her, whether 
she just did a quick drive by pick up on the way out of the bus, 
or what.  I do know that it totally freaked me out.  She will be 
wearing the GL for quite a while now, and perhaps the basket 
muzzle, though I've been encouraged to call TSE and talk to 
someone in the training department about that one.  I'm no 
beginner dog handler, so I guess the final thing I want to say in 
this email is that you can never be careful enough.  Dogs are so 
quick, and sometimes very subtle about what they do.  I can pick 
up very well the lunge she sometimes does because she sees food 
across the table on the ground.  But it's the subtle moves that 
dogs sometimes make that are the hardest to pick up on.  So now, 
$2500 later, all I can say is that I hope and pray, never again.

Matt, that's what I mean by nose dives.  Hopefully you will never 
have that kind of experience.  You and Marilyn will have 
wonderful times together.    Blessings,    Debby and Nova