Weekend Highs and Lows

Well, we certainly had an interesting weekend.  It started on Friday, when Justin took Sam to his parents’ house to drop her off for the weekend.  I decided not to go with him because I thought it might be too difficult for me, but we received updates all weekend and she apparently really enjoyed herself.  We’ll probably be going up there tonight to pick her up and bring her home for the week.

9 wks Vs. 12 wks (The bigger she gets, the more afraid she is to be up on the counter.)

Saturday morning, we took Margot for her 12-week check-up and another round of vaccinations at the Animal Care Clinic.  The last time I was at the vet, it was when I took Jocie to find out what was wrong with her, and I was told she had advanced kidney failure and, unfortunately, I felt it was best to euthanize her.  After that visit, the receptionist told me not to worry about making a payment at that time.  She said she’d just bill me.  Therefore, I was fully expecting to pay around $200 when we checked out after Margot’s appointment on Saturday.   I also knew that Jocie’s ashes were ready to be picked up (a separate charge of $256), which Justin had generously offered to pay for me.  However, I was quite shocked when I was told that my total account balance was over $400, which did not include Jocie’s cremation and ashes!  That included x-rays, blood work, and who knows what other tests they did in order to diagnose Jocie’s kidney failure.  The only reason why I’m kind of put off about this total is simply because I wasn’t given any sort of heads up about it beforehand.  Usually, the vet will call and ask permission to do a bunch of tests like that while also giving me an estimate of how much it will cost.  I’m not saying I would have denied Jocie any of the tests she had done, I’m just saying that it sucked being blindsided with a total that was more than double what I was expecting to pay!

Thankfully, they are allowing me to make payments, but this really doesn’t help my already bleak financial situation at the moment.  To make matters worse, this weekend was my little brother’s 30^th birthday and all of our friends were planning to have dinner together, then go out to a bar afterwards.  After giving the Animal Care Clinic 2/3 of what was in my bank account that morning, I seriously questioned whether or not I would be able to go out and celebrate my brother’s birthday that night.  Justin happened to have a friend in from out of town, whom he said he could hang out with for free, and he, therefore, insisted I take the only $20 bill he had in his wallet so that I could join our friends for Zach’s birthday dinner and drinks.  The only reason I felt okay with this arrangement, though, was because Justin was already planning to make a big pot of chili to take over to Zach and Kristy’s the next day, which was Zach’s actual birthday, and spend the entire day watching football with everyone. 



So, I went out Saturday night without Justin, but by the end of the night I wasn’t so sure if it had been such a good idea, after all.  Maybe it was the pitcher of margaritas I had shared during dinner plus the few beers I had while at the bar, but I got a little teary towards the end of the night.  I just hated the fact that Justin wasn’t there due to our horrible financial situation, on top of all the other crap that has happened this past summer.  I just feel like I’m not really dealing with everything very well , and I keep trying to ignore the pain of it all by distracting myself and pretending to be happy and okay.  The downside to this strategy, of course, is the fact that my repressed pain and depression is finding the most inopportune times to rear it’s ugly head and create embarrassing social situations for myself (i.e. while sitting at my desk at work, while eating out at a restaurant, while hanging out with friends, etc.). 



Margot watching football with Justin.  (So cute!)



Anyway, Sunday was a little bit better.  Justin made his fabulous veggie chili, I made a batch of buffalo cheese dip, and we took Margot over to Zach and Kristy’s place for a day of watching football.  I’m not the world’s biggest football fan, mind you, but I enjoyed spending the day with friends and eating TONS of yummy food.  It was definitely a prime socializing experience for Margot, too, as she played her little heart out with all of our friends.  The boys, especially, loved rough-housing with her.  By the end of the night, she was completely WIPED OUT!  In fact, she was so zonked that she barely woke up when I scooped her up in my arms and carried her home. 

All in all, I think Justin and I did a decent job of making the most out of this past weekend.  I know that Margot had a fantastic time, and hopefully Sam enjoyed her puppy-free weekend relaxing over at Justin’s parents’ house.  I can’t wait to pick her up tonight and bring her home!  I missed my Samul cuddles. 

Sam just being Sam

Margot's Insane and Jocie's Not Right

Last night, Margot was INSANE!!!  I don’t know what got into her, but she went non-stop at a million miles per minute from the time I got home from work until we finally put her to bed around 10:30 p.m.  Usually, she has what we call “crazy puppy time” where she’ll run at full throttle for about an hour or so, but then she eventually sputters out and takes about a half-hour nap.  Lately, she’s been going through the crazy puppy time/nap time cycle about twice every evening before finally going to bed.  Last night, however, she took only one little 10-minute disco nap before she was up and running around the house again.   She was an absolute terror!  She kept picking on Sam and trying to get her to play, but of course Sam wanted none of that.  She also kept getting into the laundry basket and shoe basket.  I swear, I probably used half a can of that spray that repels cats and dogs.  I had a lot of house cleaning and photo editing that I was hoping to get done last night, but I seriously couldn’t let Margot out of my sight ALL night long.  Like I said, I don’t know what got into her, but I REALLY hope she got it all out of her system last night.

In other news, I’m starting to worry about Jocie.  She’s my oldest dog, a Border Collie/Golden Retriever mix , who is around 12 years-old now.  I’m trying not to be a Nervous Nelly, which I kind of have been ever since we went through all those medical emergencies with Lexie a few months ago; however, my gut is telling me that something really isn’t right with Jocie lately.  Well…let me rephrase that.  Something hasn’t been “right” with Jocie for many years, as she is referred to as my goofball and has many hilarious little personality quirks, including an OCD eating ritual that you’d have to see to believe.  What I mean, though, is that she’s been keeping to herself a lot more than usual lately, and what worries me the most is that she’s not eating well.  It’s been almost three days since I’ve seen her eat a whole bowl of dog food.  We’ve gotten her to eat a few dog biscuits here and there, but not a whole meal.  So, last night Justin went out and bought Jocie some canned dog food in gravy, which she usually LOVES.  However, I was only able to get her to eat two bites of it, and that is NOT like Jocie. 

I’ve noticed that she’s got what appears to be some kind of a little growth or maybe a sty on her left upper eyelid.  It’s been there for a while, though, and never seemed to cause her any problems.  Within the last month, however, from time to time she’ll have a build up of green mucous in that eye.  After I clean it out, her eye looks fine.  It’s not red or anything, but the green mucous will build up again within a day or two.  I know I need to take her to see Dr. Ellis, but I’m terrified of what it will end up costing, as I’m now thousands of dollars in debt over Lexie’s surgeries.   The Nervous Nelly in me is also worried that the little “sty” might actually be a cancerous tumor or something.  I know that ignoring the problem won’t make it go away, but I honestly cannot afford any sort of medical treatment right now.  I can’t even afford this vacation we’re going on next week!  I actually tried to back out of the trip shortly before Lexie died because I knew I wasn’t going to have any extra money to spend while we’re there, but at that point it was too late to get a refund. 

Anyway, I’ve got a lot of antibiotics at my house that Lexie never had the chance to take, so I think I’m going to try giving Jocie some of those for a week or so.  Hopefully, that will take care of the problem.  If not, I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet and take her to the vet after we get back from vacation.  I swear, these dogs are going to give me a heart attack and/or cause me to be homeless before I’m 40.