Reba is our July 17, 2011 pup of the week

The close calls end quickly.   The Mom who swerves her car to the left to miss the drifting motorcycle in the other lane.   The little girl who doesn't get off the school bus followed by a call from the school saying she is safe, and had just boarded the wrong bus.  The close calls end quickly, but linger in the mind, the buried "What If?" reverberating for weeks in the recesses of the mind.  Take the case of Pokey and Maggie.


Let me make clear; sorry my friends, but you two are not our pups of the week.  Running away from home will never earn dogs that honor.  It might earn you naughty dog of the week, but I am afraid if someone were to do a Google search for naughty dogs it might provide web sites only dogs with serious self esteem issues would like to see.  But I am willing to bet a bag of high quality kibble that their Mommy has spent more than a few nights this week wondering what would have happened if their dog walker had not found them.  But it's another of our good friends who suffered a close call that we celebrate as Pup of the Week.


Our great labbie friend Reba has earned the honor this week.  Mom found a large lump on Reba's throat causing an even larger one to form in her Mom's.  Reba likes to play in the tall grass.  But she gets those sticky things all over her when she does.  Her Mommy was either afraid she swallowed one because she had been coughing and panting a great deal, but even more scared that she hadn't.  If she had a burr in her throat it could do a lot of damage to her it and could be cause for an operation, and lots of pain.  But if it wasn't then it could be a baseball sized mass in her throat which would be deathly serious.  Her Mommy made an appointment with the dogter for Saturday.


But when us pups look up at our Mom with big, sad, brown eyes, and sigh in pain, Saturday might as well be the next century.  Reba's Mom decided she couldn't wait for the weekend, every second could be vital, so she loaded Reba into the car and they drove to the million dollar midnight dogtor.  This is where Pokey and Maggie redeem themselves from their daylight wandering.  They let their Mom text back and forth with Reba's Mom while she was going to the vet so she had someone to worry with.  (Unless texting while driving with a lumpy dog is illegal in California then this definintley did not happen.)


Thankfully the million dollar x-ray showed the lump was not attached to anything.  It was an abcess most likely caused by her snacking on those sticky things during her walk.  She only had to take some pills and the million dollar vet tech said she should be all right.  The one thing the million dollar men said that was worth their price was the pill could be taken in lunch meat.  Oh there is nothing I enjoy more at lunch time then meat, even if it does have a pill in it.   The dogter wanted to see if the abcess went down or burst.  I hope it doesn't burst.  I saw on Tosh.0 a woman giving birth in the bathtub and it was gross.  I don't know what that has to do with Reba's condition but I just wanted you to know I saw it and it was gross.


By the end of the week the swelling had gone down.    Hopefully in three weeks it will all be gone away.  She went to her real dogtor who squeezed her butt until stuff came out then jabbed something in there, pretty presumptiuoius for someone who only bought lunch meat.

After all that Mommy gave Reba a bath, I mean I can't blame her after an anal sac explosion.  Her brother Logan broke their in ground pool, which is quite impressive.  I think it is the biggest thing any dog I know has broken.  So everything seems right in the chocolate lab world.

Except I bet you her Mom, Aunt Wendy, wakes up in the middle of the night wandering what if?  It's the same What if? us dogs suffer through when you come home late.  So if you don't come home late we won't have any more strange bumps.  It will be called the Reba, Pup of the Week Accord of July 17, 2011.