Never A Dull Moment

We're starting the year with a bang. Save the fireworks, people, we've got enough drama going on without them. Josh woke up this morning with a fever and sore throat. Well yippee yahoo! He was diagnosed positive for strep at the doctor this morning. I'm mentally counting; this is 2 cases in 3 weeks. We're still at the don't panic, it's completely normal stage, but if it continues too long I should probably consider having the dogs tested. And which one would I start with? Although we just kicked one out yesterday, we still have 4 wonderful 4-legged shedding machines in the house. And if we test them for the sake of the 2-legged non-shedders, would that fall under our insurance? Because our dogs don't have that little luxury of having all their bills covered.

And because these things always happen in 3's, the dogs stepped up to the plate to fill in the remainder. Our chocolate lab, that we bought for the express purpose of having beautiful puppies sired by our gorgeous yellow lab, and that has a medical condition that prevents her from having puppies naturally, has suddenly developed what looks to be severe arthritis. My brain keeps screaming hip dysplasia, but I've never seen it personally and don't know what it looks like. The dog is not in any kind of pain whatsoever, but won't bend her back legs. She hops around on them and gets around very well, but there's obviously a problem. Yesterday morning she was fine, yesterday evening not so much. It was that fast. Today she's doing much better but it still isn't looking good. Because of the lack of pain, I'm adopting the wait it out method. If she gets worse again between now and tomorrow I'll take her to the vet. If she continues to slowly get better, but is still obviously not right, I may take her to the vet Monday. I just cringe at the bottom line of that bill.

But it's 3rd bang that's taking all our bucks. We set ourselves up quite nicely with a modest corgi kennel and were looking forward to a year of puppies. No more running our girls all over the country to rendezvous with their lovers, no more making arrangements to meet someone midway on the 3 hour trip, no more fees associated with the services I was getting the girls. But it's just our luck that the beautiful male we got has decided that it's a whole lot of bother to get the job done. What kind of man is he?! Is there a little blue pill for dogs? Because this stupid idiot needs one. Or two. He's been a daddy before and knows what to do, so I'm not understanding his new position on this. I've always been under the impression that all males, no matter what species, were all about doing the girl. I have no idea what ails this stupid, stupid dog, but I don't have time to find out. My girl wanted him yesterday and I'm running out of time. (A quick disclosure of TMI for anyone who's not into raising dogs; they ovulate twice yearly. It isn't like we can just say we'll catch her next month.) So my husband spent all morning searching for a fertility vet while I had the boy at the doctor. Shockingly, not every vet does this kind of stuff. We are incredibly fortunate to vet with one of the only ones in the 4-county area that does. Except that he's on vacation until next week. I've got 2-3 more days looking at me before the window of opportunity closes. We found a vet who actually was able to get us in tomorrow, and it's only 2 hours away. The cost isn't as much as we'd feared it could be, but when you've got both the male and the female, shouldn't the end result be one happy boy and one knocked up girl?

So if this is the first week of January, I shudder to think what the rest of the year will be like.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know I shouldn't find any of that amusing, but that gave me one severe case of the giggles. Little blue pills for dogs! There was a dog in the commerical with Bob Dole, wasn't there?

I hope Josh is feeling better soon, the lab makes a speedy recovery, and that the boy dog goes to town on the girl dog! (That post is the exact reason my husband will not even consider letting me breed dogs!)

Deanne said...

Talk about drama...you've got a lot goin' on over at yer place!! :) Maybe you're just getting all the bad stuff out of the way now so that you can enjoy the rest of 2008?! :)

Madame Queen said...

GAH! Only twice a year? I thought it was way more than that. Guess that goes to show you what I know about dogs.

Sorry Josh has strep. That's frustrating, I know. Maybe it's not the dogs. There was a particularly virulent strain of strep around here last year and people (dogless people) kept getting it over and over.

I keep telling myself it's only 3 more months til spring...3 more months til spring...

AutoSysGene said...

Maybe you need to get the corgi a little doggie porn...what do you suppose that would look like? Lots of doggie style? Sorry I just couldn't resist.

I hope your son feels better and I didn't realize you could get strep from a dog. See you learn something new every day.

Karen said...

Madame Q -You're going to think that I'm crazy, but I'm glad it's midwinter. We're sick enough. We tend to get way more sick in the spring when things warm up, and get cold, and warm up...

Deanne - maybe that's it! The rest of the year will be wonderful and nothing bad will happen. :)

Driving - glad I could make your day. If you don't laugh, your head will explode. Mine almost did once a few years ago before I learned that life was hysterical.

Karen said...

Melissa - I was informed of this wonderful bit of information from my DR, and the pediatrician confirmed. Fun, no? And doggie porn cracks me up. I have visions of the dogs lying on their backs with their legs wide, like most dogs do. I've always thought that looked a bit scandalous, now I know why.

kimmy said...

I hope the rest of January is rather uneventful for you! At least you got the THIRD thing out of way...it should be smooth sailing from now on...

Kimmy
http://talesofablenderkimmy.blogspot.com/

Kellan said...

Well, since it's all rolling down hill right now, maybe it will have nowhere to go but up and your luck will turn soon - I hope so. I liked all the stories though - thanks. Kellan

Burgh Baby said...

That's quite the eventful week. I hope it gets better, and fast.

Every time you tell a tale of breeding woe, I have to admit I feel a little happy. Meg is show quality and we had full intentions of breeding her. However, we weren't able to find a suitable male (I refused to breed more Bulldogs with severe allergies or that were of obviously bad lineage). We actually considered sperm donation (only $400--woohoo!) before deciding to give up. So every time you tell a bad tale, I'm so very glad we didn't go there. It could have gone so bad, so fast, especially given the difficulties of breeding Bullies.

Having said that, I hope your Corgis get some real soon. *Cue chicka chicka bow music*

Karen said...

BBM - A friend of mine just started raising bulldogs. I'm both jealous and grateful that it's not me. There's a whole world of work and expenses involved with them. And $400 is incredibly cheap! I'll keep you informed of Minnie's pregnancy status. I hope she gets violated right proper.

Suburban Correspondent said...

Hmmm....you have very interesting problems; you do know that, don't you?

lindsey said...

oh my goodness! Sorry to hear about your son, I hope he feels better soon.

As far as the dog mating... good luck!

Cecily R said...

Strep is nasty stuff. My sister in law is a carrier and so while she never gets it, my brother and her kids do from her. Weird. Hope your son feels better soon.

Dog mating....um, well, I am clueless. Good luck with that!!

Kidzmama said...

I had no idea breeding was this complicated. And strep on top of it all. Goodness.

Good luck with all that.

Wineplz said...

ugh...I hope your son gets better soon...I had strep last winter and my lands! it was awful...hope your son's isn't that bad. And I'm REALLY hoping your lab doesn't have hip dysplasia!!!...although that sounded a bit suspicious. makes me nauseous just thinking about it. Hope your pup just pulled a muscle. And I hope your corgi gets his muscle moving, too. Lazy boy not takin' care of his lady's needs. :)

Maria said...

Ha ha. Sounds like your house is very lively right now. That's probably the norm, though, right?