I have been away a few days because we had a little Christmas drama. But I do have a story to share...

Last Christmas, my husband and I relented to the many pleas from my children for a dog. We live in an apartment so I insisted on a small dog and the sweetest, most precious little dachshund found us. She is affectionate and fun and my kids adore her. And despite being slow to join the dog bandwagon, I have grown to love this little dog.

Even when she did this...

But especially when she looks like this...

Just before midnight on Friday night, I heard a terrible noise. A deep, retching sound. I went to investigate and found that the sound was coming from this little dog.  She was desperately trying to clear something from her throat and was unable to do it. I tried to help her clear it. I tried to help her gag. I held her upside-down.  but she continued to make this awful, even nightmarish sound.

A Gift Lost?

And then, she looked at me. I have heard the phrase "eyes bugged out". But I had never seen it before. I hope that I shall never see it again. She was in severe distress. She could not breathe. I thought she was going to die. Right there in my arms. In the room next to my sleeping children.

I just kept envisioning my little boy. If ever a boy loved his dog, this boy loves his dog. How would I tell him that the dog he loved, the one he called "the best Christmas present ever!" had died? At Christmas time! I tried everything I knew to do with a baby and she finally breathed. But she was obviously still in danger. It was midnight and we are out of town and she needed help. STAT!

So I woke my mom, pulled on jeans, and ran for the car. I left my husband with the kids sleeping, hoping that they would wake in the morning never knowing the struggles of the dog. My mother frantically called her vet and got the number for a local emergency clinic. We may have broken a couple of traffic laws getting there. But we got there. All along, she retched and struggled. I was not sure if she would make it. But she made it. While there were others in the waiting room, we were moved to the top of the list.

They kept asking the same question -- "Do you know what she could have swallowed?" and more specifically, "Could it be rawhide?"Rawhide? Of course, she had access to rawhide. She's a dachshund! She chews on everything. The only hope we have of preserving furniture and shoes (3 down and counting...) is to keep her well-stocked in rawhide. So the answer was "yes". It could be rawhide. It also could be a myriad of other things dropped by a four or eight-year-old. She was sent off for x-rays. There were discussions of driving to a college with a veterinary department that did emergency endoscopic surgeries. And then we were sent to the waiting room. To wait...And wait...And worry. To think about what would happen if she needed thousands of dollars of help which I don't have.

Praying for a Gift, One More Time

How would I go home and explain to my children that I couldn't afford to save their beloved dog? I began to pray...And pray. And the door opened. They called me down to a room. The doctor came in and placed up x-rays. X-rays showing a blockage and then x-rays from 20 minutes later that showed it gone. It was rawhide and it was moving down. She was going to be okay. They don't know why it finally moved but I do! We left after four a.m. and they kept her for another day. She is now home and won't leave my side. She was returned to us and to me that is a Christmas miracle.

She is the dog who saved Christmas or this is the Christmas that saved the dog. Either way, I am thankful. 

P.S. In honor of the blessing of the animals this weekend, for those of you who have a dog around the tree (or behind the menorah or anywhere else in your heart or home), please get rid of the rawhide! The vet at the Emergency Clinic said that most vets don't know the danger and often advocate them for clean teeth. But my puppy's story was not even close to the worse they have seen. They have seen dogs die from them. So please spare yourself the lesson I learned the hard way.