This week has been a tense week for me. Louie has been sick. He got his kennel cough vax on Sunday and by Monday night was coughing and by last night had progressed to not eating, shivering with smelly yellow snot running from his nose. He slept in bed with me and Tony with me waking every thirty minutes to make sure he was still alive. I got him up this morning to potty where he promptly peed and pooped and came back in and barely ate his food, even though I had added some of the freeze dried medallions and wetting them like he likes. Usually he will eat this all down in one sitting and then walk around with his fat puppy belly hanging low.

I got Aislinn off to school and after that Louie decided to chase the case. He lasted five minutes before he started to hack and cough. He napped while I waited for the vets office to open to see if they had anything available today. Of course they didn't and I have to take him in tomorrow.

Yet, in true "kid" fashion, after I have worked myself up enough to actually decide to take him to the Dr. he's fine. He woke up from his all day long doze peppy. His eyes are clear, he played with me outside, he ran after Jonny and didn't cough once. He came in allowed me to play wrastle and even fetched his squeaky star for me once before walking off in search of the cat. He found the cat and decided to terrorize her for a bit. Now he's walking around looking for toilet paper to chew.

I've never been one to take my children, or myself for that matter, to the Dr. right away, and the Dr. is free. I like to take a wait and see approach. So, you can see how I waited so long for the dog. I heard that some dogs get kennel cough after getting the vax for it. I just didn't know kennel cough was so scary! It was like the dog flu or something. I wish I could have given him Nyquil or something. Of course, after not being able to take the uncertainty anymore, after second guessing my wait and see attitude, I break and call the vet adn now I either cancel or pay to have them look at my healthy-ish dog and say "Give him a few more days.. that will be 1 billion dollars".

I grew up in a family that had outside dogs. You got a dog, you put him in your backyard. You fed it, you watered it, you cleaned up its poo, but you never really played with it or did anything with it. It was mainly there to disuade people from breaking in. So, this is all new territory for me.