I thought I would be writing my next blog post all about Sophie, our new puppy. So this is partly about Sophie, but also a lot about our two other old ladies, Harper and Heather.
Sophie came to live with us on Tuesday. After a few days of major adjustment it dawned on us that she was not going to potty train herself so we buckled down, got on a schedule and started to really focus. She’s doing really well now, or we are anyway! Outside about every hour, and after meals, and after naps, and before bed.
We are learning to make sure she is restricted to a crate when we can’t watch her. We are starting to work on basic commands, mainly sit. She is a cute little thing, 14 weeks old, and full of it. It will be fun to watch her grow.
I had my ideas about how the other two dogs would react. I thought Harper would be delighted, and for the most part she is. They are playing and snuggling together on a regular basis, and have from day one. She is also making sure that Sophie knows she is the Queen, but not in a mean way. And she is a teeny bit jealous of us paying so much attention to Sophie, so we have to make sure we give Harper lots of attention too.
Then there’s Heather. I thought Heather would be like, “oooo a puppy to take care of!” but it hasn’t been like that. It’s been more like, “crap a puppy to take care of! I’m too old for this shit!” For the first couple of days Heather wouldn’t have anything to do with Sophie, either ignoring her or rejecting her. But the last few days she has been warming up to her, playing with her a little, and even snuggling with her a little last night.
All good, right? Well so I thought. Last night we went to bed around 9:30. Shortly after that Heather went to the foot of the bed next to Sophie’s little crate where she is sleeping right now and started whining. I thought maybe she needed to go outside again. So I took her out but she didn’t do anything.
Back inside, the whining resumed, again next to Sophie’s crate. Well maybe she’s trying to tell me that Sophie needs to go out, so this time I took Sophie outside as well, and they both pooped. Okay I thought, that must have been it.
But no. Inside Heather ran anxiously around the house, and when I tried to put everyone to bed again she started whining louder, and louder until she was flat out crying. At this point I woke up Lee and I called the emergency vet.
All sorts of things were flying through my head. Heather has a tumor on her pancreas but she’s been doing great for over a year. Was this it? Had something happened with the tumor? Or was it something else. Some cancer, or some other disease.
As we drove to Blue Pearl, Heather cried louder and louder. At one point I joined her, crying “oh God! Oh God!” as Heather screamed. It was truly horrific. Suddenly things were quiet. I turned around to look at the next stoplight and Heather had thrown up. She looked a little confused, but mostly relieved and peaceful.
The vomit was a lot of white foamy stuff and remnants of her dinner and bedtime treats. It didn’t smell.
At BP I rushed her inside. The vet tech had heard her crying on the phone and he was very concerned, and as confused as I was that she suddenly seemed ok. They admitted her for observation and said they would call me once the doctor had a chance to look at her.
Back home I slept fitfully. On top of everything it was the start of daylight savings time so everyone’s internal clocks were messed up too.
Once I talked to the doctor in the morning we decided to test for the most likely causes of what seemed like a bout of very intense pain. The results? Not kidney stones. Not a gall bladder attack. Not her heart. Not pancreatitis. Her blood sugar was normal. Heather was fine!
We were puzzled, but also relieved. I brought her home and she is sleeping peacefully on the couch. I know we will lose Heather someday but I’m really not ready right now, and the last thing I want is her dying in agony. I sent a text to Diane, our Westie breeder, and this is what she said:
“Penta [one of her mamas] does this when I have puppies whether they're hers or not hers. She does this, she eats her breakfast then she runs around the house crying and crying and crying and pacing and pacing and crying and and then all of a sudden she'll throw up just dog food for the puppies to eat so it could be that Heather's motherly instincts could be kicking in and she feels like she has to feed the puppy.”
Bingo! This is exactly what Heather was doing! I’m sure Diane is right. The timing is a little off, but Heather is old, and deaf, and sometimes a little confused.
I sure hope this was a one time thing. It was really nerve wracking. I love Heather and seeing her in what seemed like intense pain was awful. I’ve been telling her she doesn’t need to take care of Sophie. I hope she is listening!
So now we have a pack again. It’s nice, but it does make me miss Cosmo again, seeing three little white dogs on the couch. Some day in the not too distant future there will be only one little dog lying there. But not today, and not tomorrow. Not yet.
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