Update!

Read yesterday's post (the one below this one) before reading this update.

8:15 a.m. - It's a little after 8 o'clock and the Garden Grove Dog & Cat Hospital called. Nikki had several things in her vomit: several pieces of orange plastic (the toy), electrical wiring, copper wiring and 2 shoe laces. To the last two items, I say this: Huh?? I have no idea where she got copper wiring and shoe laces.

They did a 2nd x-ray and all looks clear. They're keeping her until 2 PM to ensure that she can keep food down and they'll clean her up for me. I'm to call first before going to pick her up, however.

All I can say is that when I find that Nikki has destroyed something, I have to assume that she has eaten it, which means another trip to the vet for x-rays and probable vomiting. The plastic toy pieces would have been no big deal as she would have been able to pass them, but if the other items had gone through her system, she would have had to have surgery.

6:50 p.m. - Picked her up around 5 p.m. as she wasn't dry earlier (they washed her.) The electrical wiring was the extension cord that she ate and the copper wiring most likely came from my mom's 40-year-old-lamp ... she had stripped it. O-K. So I know where she got everything but the shoe laces. (Again, the cats??)

When she was weighed yesterday, she was 73.1 lbs., which was a 2 lb. increase since I had her weighed 8 days ago, which didn't seem right. So either the scale was set wrong or all that stuff she ate weighed her down. Today she was 70.7 lbs., which is a slight weight loss from 71.1 lbs. on the 10th. That makes more sense.

I asked the doctor if she was overweight, and he said no. She's on I/D for a couple of days; she needs to be on a bland diet.

Nikki's Been a Bad Girl!

Well, the Nikkster did it again. Last Tuesday (after I fell asleep on the couch watching TV), she ate a brand new plastic toy I had bought her approximately 2 hours earlier. Then, last Friday, she ate some electrical cords that were in the living room - again while I was sleeping on the couch. My mother's lamp had survived for 40 years but I have Nikki in the house for 10 months, and she destroys the cord!

This morning, she threw up right after getting up in the morning. I tried to clean it up, but she wanted to eat it. Yuck. Sorry. I tried to get it away from her, but she picked up the mess and ate it. (Hot lunch. Ooh. Sorry.)

I saw that there were 2 plastic pieces from the toy in all that mess that she upchucked, so I tried to get it. All I could manage to get was one of the plastic pieces, but not the other. I knew then that she should go to the vet. Well, surprise, surprise. They did an x-ray and found all kinds of foreign bodies! Something that looked like shoe laces, electrical cords, the plastic piece and Lord knows what else. The vet induced vomiting per my suggestion and she coughed up all kinds of stuff, including the plastic piece, the electrical cords plus one orange shoe lace and one white one. How she got shoe laces, I don't know. I never wear any ... wonder if she found some left behind something by my parents?

She's spending the night and they are x-raying her again tomorrow to make sure they got it all.

This all makes me wonder if the cats have had a hand in this. Shoe laces? I'm beginning to wonder if they plant things around the house in an effort to get rid of Nikki. They sure seem pretty happy tonight that she's not home. And maybe they're lacing my drinks with knock-out drops so I am off my guard. I'm sure that's it. Yep. Gotta be.

Nikki's Birthday Party

Nikki is going to be one years old on Tuesday, April 11th, so Robin and Kayla threw Nikki a birthday party today. The 2 girls hadn't seen each other for awhile, so there was quite a lot of joyous jumping, wrestling and some non-threatening growling to re-establish the pecking order. I was surprised to see that Kayla seemed taller and filled out a bit since we had last seen her. She's over a year old now, so I hadn't expected that.

It was a lovely day out, so they had the requisite pool party. They ran up and down the yard, and, of course, ran into my almost fully recovered left knee. Luckily, I had gone to the doctor, so was able to take an anti-inflammatory right away, which helped immensely.

We had fun trying to get Nikki to pose with her party hat on ... as you can see, they're still quite damp from their "swim" (and so is my floor.) Luckily, she was fairly tired so the party hat remained in good shape.

Robin and Kayla brought Nikki some beautiful dog cookies, cannoli plus a huge cupcake, all in a great dog bowl with the apropos word "Diva" written on the bowl. Nikki seems to love her treats from this Belmont Shore dog bakery more than the Three Dog Treats bakery in Newport. I'd love to get a collar with the word "Diva" on it for Nikki. It would suit her so! Robin gave me some Easter candy from Sees that was quite yummy!

All in all, Nikki had a great birthday party and a good pre-birthday week. She saw more people than usual, including playing with the 2 boys twice, plus she got to see her best friend, Kayla! She's one happy and tired dog - which makes for one, happy Mom. :-)