Or.. Life was Fucking Stellar and the "Powers that Be" (which I don't believe in) Thought to Level That Shit.

Good stuff from yesterday first, so we can understand how ah-mazing it was.

1. Mexican.  I love Mexican.  I would eat Mexican every single day.  I would weigh a bajillion pounds, but I would be freaking stoked the entire time.  Oh, more nachos?  Sure!  Vegetarian fajitas?  Bring it!  Tequila?  Yup!  Margarita?  Yes, please.  ...Okay, so I didn't have all that.  Just the margarita and the nachos.  But it was on a patio and it was bliss.
2. Goodwill shopping.  I'm not ashamed to say that I buy used clothing.  I worked at Goodwill for two years as a volunteer coordinator, so I get the message.  I also see no difference between buying clothes from Goodwill and buying clothes from Plato's Closet, save that Goodwill is considerably cheaper.  It takes longer to find decent stuff and I work a pretty damn good system:  I only buy certain brands that I know wear well, I browse immediately for my size (and I only shop at the one GW that sizes), and before I even try anything on, I scan it for any issues.  Some items even list when they were manufactured, so unless it's relatively new or just that damn good, I don't buy it.  I've maintained half my wardrobe doing this.  I don't buy shoes and I aim for higher end things.
3. Dressage lesson.  The hubs was able to come to the ride and take video.  The Wild Western Pony was his normal self, but I got some compliments.  Kathy said that I was a good student (if I understand what she wants, I do it. The problem is trying to figure out what she wants.) and that the poor guy didn't understand my "sophisticated" requests.  It was a good, albeit hot, lesson.
4. Cupcakes.  More Gigi's!  This time:  Bourbon and Vegas Wedding.  Yuuuum.
5. Jazz'd.  Another opportunity for great food that I wasn't able to finish.
6. Tattoo!  Squee!  I have another session in a couple weeks to officially finish the damn thing.  I got my owl, some filler and my phrase.  Photos on that are forthcoming, too.

And then, this morning, I had a great ride on the kid.  We're all prepping up for "Tropical Storm Beryl" to come and wash us away, so it was a bit windy.  The other two geldings followed us into the pasture in which we were riding and, at this point in time, they were on one side and we were on the other.  There was a sudden tree cracking and the next thing I know, the two geldings are galloping towards us.  I was SO proud of Archie!  He got concerned, but didn't try to break or spook or anything.

Now, a down that equals all of that.

I bought a pack of gum.  I thought it was strawberry, but it was mint and I don't like mint gum.  So I gave it to my husband.  We go run errands this afternoon and he mentions, out loud, how he wonders where he left that gum.  I don't think much of it, but when we get home, we find the fucking pack ripped to shreds.

If you aren't familiar with dogs, or with sugar-free gum, there's an ingredient that can kill your dog.  It's an artificial sweetener called Xylitol.  It's perfectly safe for humans, but one piece of gum with Xylitol has the potential to kill a tiny breed dog.

I immediately took Scarlette and Savannah outside with our trusty syringe and bottle of hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting.  Here's a side note:  if your dog has eaten something and you aren't sure if it's safe, call the vet before you induce.  When I couldn't get them to vomit, and with the knowledge that they had a three hour window to eat this crap and time was of the essence, I hauled off to the emergency vet.

They used a medication called apomorphine which, when placed under the eye, causes almost instantaneous vomiting.  They were able to determine that both dogs ate the gum.  The vet came in to talk to me about the concerns about the toxicity and I pretty much told her to cut the shit and run a blood glucose (BG) while I call the ASPCA poison control number ($60).  I'm not a vet and she probably hated that I asked if she had already done that, but I knew they ate the gum and didn't need to know the contents of the vomit to prove that.  I needed numbers.  I needed to know the damage.

After the BG had time to run (and I'm not sure what took them so long), she came back to report that they were both hypoglycemic and that, after talking to the ASPCA toxicity vet, she had a game plan.  This is what I'm talking about!  I gave the primary tech a head up that I had three years' experience in emergency veterinary medicine, so I don't know why they were pussy-footing around.

The bottom line is that they'll have to spend the night at the emergency clinic, getting intravenous (IV) fluids with dextrose, to level out the BG.  They ran a chem panel to get a base line for values (which, by the way, if your vet ever wants to run bloodwork when your pet isn't sick, FUCKING DO IT!  They need something by which to compare should anything go wanky.).  Everything was currently "within normal limits" (WNL).  They'll stay on the fluids until the BGs are normal and repeat the labwork in 24 hours.  The point, after having determined that they had a toxicity strong enough to cause hypoglycemic, is to see if there is any liver damage.  Unfortunately, that takes a minute to determine.


Yay for xanax and bud light.