Sick Puppy

Poor Scruff-dog has not had a good couple weeks. I took him to the vet for his annual checkup and shots two weeks ago and turned out he had a nasty ear infection. He also has allergies which mostly manifest in adorable doggy-sneezes but had progressed to his eyes. So our tough guy had to have drops in his eyes and ear every day, which he took like a champ.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, he must have caught some sort of 24 hour doggie stomach flu... if such a thing exists? All I know is one day as I'm walking out the door he started making that horrible heaving sound and before I can usher him off the carpet... blech. And again... and again... Then he didn't want to eat or drink anything, and so I fed him what I feed myself when I'm sick: saltine crackers and Gatorade. Well, actually it was Vitamin Water but you get the idea. That only lasted about a day and a half, thank goodness for everyone and especially for my carpet.

Now he has this kind of hacking cough that he's doing, the kind that wakes me up at night and, just in case, makes me get out of bed and go check on him. Poor little pup.

It's hard taking care of someone (or in this case somedog) who is sick, and I don't think it is especially my strong suit. Visiting sick people is easy for me - I'm good at cheering and no-nonsense advising and gift-bearing. But really caring for the sick requires lots of patience and mercy, and if I'm being honesty those are two big weaknesses for me! Still, I know God wants to develop those things in me, and I think this past week He might have used dog barf to inch me a little closer.

Opportunities for lessons learned aside, I really hope Scruffy is better soon and back to his normal self. Or rather, as normal as a mostly-super-chill, other-dog-hating, weird-phobia-having, backwards-walking puppy can be.