So I took the day off, since our travel plans for the trip back got f’d up. I don’t normally revert to silly phrases like “f’d up” but in this case, it’s suitable. Basically, we got to the Tucson airport at about 11 AM Monday to find that our small jaunt to Phoenix was delayed half an hour due to “maintenance issues”. They apparently notified some passengers via phone and others – like us, for example – they did not. Had we known, we would have driven to Phoenix, caught the one and only flight to Orlando for the day, and been home Monday evening by 6:30 PM, then gotten on the road to Tallahassee. But what did happen was that we had to take a flight that left Tucson at about 6:55 PM which took us to Las Vegas, where we waited about three and a half hours for an overnighter that got us into Orlando at 6:24 AM, Tuesday morning. UGH. That day and a half where we did nothing but travel and wait was horrible. I slept on the plane but you know how that goes. I woke up what seemed like every half an hour with either a sore ass or dead feet or the guy next to me jabbing me with his elbow. When we got into Orlando we packed our stuff into the car, in the rain, and then drove back. We made good time though: about three hour and forty minutes, which is the best I can do in any condition, going roughly 80 or more the whole time.

When finally home, Ash sprung the dogs from the vet. I hated to board them but really, there was no other option. Iggy looked really thin and disinterested in food so we took him into the vet today as an emergency measure, even though they don’t do Wednesday appointments. Well, it turned out to be way more serious than we thought. We assumed he just had a cold and didn’t feel like eating. However, he had a blockage in his intenstine and needed to be operated on. I can’t even begin to describe the fear I felt; Ash and I were so worried that he was just going to die. I had a tough spiritual battle with myself. On the one hand I thought, “Knowing our luck, he’s not going to make it.” On the other I prayed to god or whatever deity it is I believe in these days. It’s something like god, but not really the Catholic god that was beaten into me. It was a rough couple hours for both of us.

Of course we went with the operation. Our vet said that in 12 yeas of practice, she had only ever lost 2 dogs. So we went with the odds. After an hour, they removed the blockage and he was doing fine. luckily they only had to make a small incision and whatever he ate had not ripped up the intestine, which would have been worst case scenario if she had had to splice pieces of it together. What he ate looks nothing like our toys so we figure it’s something he picked up while there, although none of the vet techs can identify it. Iggy’s not one to swallow toy pieces – that’s Zoey – so it’s an interesting situation. The vet already told us that if it’s something on their end – basically – we’re not going to have to pay. We’ll have to see what happens. Right now, he’s resting in his crate. We have to give him a morphine shot at 10 and he goes back to the vet tomorrow to be on fluids for the day.

I am so thankful that the hard part of that is over. Certainly not how I intended to spend the day but he’s our baby. Luckily, once he was home and sleeping, Ash and I got the Christmas decorations packed up and life is slowly getting back to normal. I hope everyone had a great New Year!