Lauren's home!!!!!!!

Lauren's home!!!!! :D :D :D I know I haven't posted on my blog about my service dog's emergency weekend, so let me tell you all about it...

First a bit of background: My service dog Lauren is getting old...and showing it. She's almost 13, and so recently she's been having more health problems.

So. It all started last Thursday afternoon. Some guy rang the doorbell asking for money. As quickly and politely as she could, Mom said "no". Which was only about 10 minutes. And in that time period Lauren had a bowl movement on the floor....ugh! Mom called me up to clean it up and I didn't think anymore of it.

Until that night.
Lauren always spends the night in my room. So right before I hit the sack, I let Lauren have one more chance to use the restroom. Well, when I called her, she basically couldn't move, and she was squatting...thankfully we got her outside quick enough so there was no accident in the house.

Just as a safety precaution, Dad suggested that we have Lauren sleep in the kitchen with the linoleum floor with the gates up, so if she had an accident it would be quicker to clean up than in my room.

Good thing my parents put Lauren in the kitchen. Friday morning, 4:30 am, Dad gets up. And to his surprise, Lauren has had a MAJOR accident. Poop, urine, vomit, were all over the kitchen. And, from Lauren's current position, he realized that she hadn't moved all night. Which means she couldn't move.

So he and Mom started cleaning everything up. About 20 minutes later they got me up, to see what predicament Lauren was in. I felt soooo sorry for her. She was all sprawled out on the floor, in a terrible mess, and she couldn't move or eat or drink. My parents felt for sure that we would have to put Lauren to sleep that day, when the vet's office opened at 7:30 am. I was sad of course, but I totally understood and was behind the decision 100%, seeing how much pain Lauren was in.

Well, as soon as they could, my parents took Lauren into the vet. However, the vet had some happy, surprising news: he thought he could cure Lauren's problem, so that she could have maybe another happy, healthy year to live. YAY! He said that Lauren had some kind of a ear infection, as well as arthritis and of course her irritable bowl syndrome or something like that. But the vet said he'd need to keep Lauren over the weekend.

So Mom and Dad went home. Of course I was happy, but cautiously so. I really wasn't sure what the odds were of Lauren coming home.

We kept informed throughout the weekend on Lauren's progress. She could hold her food down. Then she could walk with assistance. Then she could use the restroom fine and walk by herself!

So the upshot of this whole story is that Lauren came home today, alive. I am sooooo happy! I was really really happy to see Lauren in good health again, even though she wobbles. So, here I broadcast to the world: LAUREN IS HOME, ALIVE, HAPPY AND HEALTHY!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAYYYY!!!!!!!!!

~Photobug