BYE BYE BLAKE...

ALMOST!!... It's a long story, so here goes... So we get to my Mom's house for dinner (we take the dogs of course)... and when Blake goes to jump out of the truck like he always does, he basically falls out. As he struggles to get up, I notice that his left chest/stomach is really swollen and hard as a rock. After some consideration, Sam and I decide to take him to the emergency vet hospital (yeah, we saw $$$ too!). The Vet proceeds to aspirate the swelling and notices pus (uh oh). So she tells us that she wants to do surgery to clean up the "abscess," which will end up costing about $600 with anesthesia, surgery fees, meds, etc. I mean I love Blake to death, as stinky, dirty, and drooly as he is, but when it comes to forking out loads of money for an animal, it's something that Sam and I decided that we wouldn't do when we got these monkeys...I mean dogs. Sam and I considered all options, and even talked to my friend, Priscilla, who is a Vet Tech, and decided that we would put him to sleep... the swelling was REALLY bad, covered a LARGE area on his body, and literally happened overnight...not good! We're thinking some massive intestinal infection since Blake will eat anything in sight...literally ANYTHING. Well, after telling the receptionist our option, she goes to tell the Vet and comes back about 10 min. later and what do you know... mind you, by this time I'm a mess, crying and all... she asks us to sign Blake over to the hospital...WHAT?!? Yeah, we were confused too. Basically she explained that the hospital would look for someone who wanted to pay the $600 to fix Blake, someone who would want to be his "new" owner. Oh heck no! I would pretty much DIE if I saw someone else in Bakersfield walking MY dog, let alone knowing that someone else was taking care of Blake. I looked at Sam and could tell he felt the same way. Sam was quick to let her know this. So the owner/Vet sits us down and tells us that she thinks it's a spider bite that got infected... Well OK THEN, we didn't know that when we were making the "big decision." She goes on to explain that she would be OK sending Blake home on pain meds and antibiotics ($140 compared to $600...big difference) to see if that works. After I had mentally prepared myself to let Blake go, we then decided that we would give that a shot. Meanwhile, we could hear all the girls in the back playing with Blake. I knew one of them wanted to take him home, which made me really upset! Not to mention that when we left the hospital, at least 3 of them said they were "going to miss him."...

So we are all home, Blake included, and doing better...at least we hope so! We're hoping that the antibiotics cure this infection... We'll keep you posted on his condition.