Oh Libby... It's a Good Thing We Love You

Libby the Lab is one expensive dog. We paid a pretty penny for her when we first brought her home 6 1/2 years ago. We had to hire a personal dog trainer as she was too stubborn and out of control for weekly lessons at the local PetSmart. We've always made sure she's well fed, buying several different brands of dog food until we found one that agreed with her stomach and alleviated her horrific smelling gas. When we first moved overseas and were told that she couldn't fly with us due to the heat, we flew her out to California to live with my in-laws, who took care of her as if she were their own. And several months later when they were finally able to ship her out to us in Oman, we spared no expense in flying her there.

I can always count on Libby to have impeccable timing. My mother-in-law found out that Libby was allergic to Leptospirosis in the annual DHLPP shot when she went into anaphylactic shock at the vet (apparently she never had that combo shot in NJ). She was hit by a car just 3 weeks after arriving in Oman, and I had to rush her to the vet for stitches and observation, though I had NO clue where the vet was even located, nor that the Egyptian vet didn't like dogs and stitched her paw with twine!

Over the past few years Libby has managed to visit the vet on such a regular basis that they know my voice on the phone and immediately squeeze her in to any appointment. She has seen the vet for a myriad of reasons including; a snake bite which swelled her hind leg to twice it's size and caused temporary paralysis, endless ear infections, horrible allergies which are only alleviated with cortisone shots, Benadryl, antihistamines, and most recently Prednisone. She had a lump and the vet thought it may be cancerous, so she had it removed and biopsied, only to find that it was just a foreign object. She gets a yearly teeth cleaning (where they put her under a general anaesthetic), her anal glands expressed, bi-monthly park worm shots, yearly immunizations, quarterly de-worming, bi-annually flea and tick collar, and most recently for another change of dog food.

It should have been no surprise to me that on Friday night, just before sundown, we noticed that Libby's chin was bleeding. After closer inspection, we deduced that she probably caught her left jowl on a twig while running through the backyard brush, but because the skin is so loose, it didn't hurt her, and she doubtfully noticed it. I, on the other hand, was very bothered and made a phone call to my good friend the vet. Of course, with Shabbat about to begin, I had to call the 24-hour emergency number. I did, and I left a message. And I waited. And waited. And waited. Nobody called me back that night. Nobody called me back on Saturday either. We cleaned her face a few times with hydrogen peroxide and kept an eye on it, and it actually looked like it was beginning to heal.

Until this morning.

Dingy dog had an itch on her face and with her hind leg scratched it so many times that she reopened the cut and now it was rather deep. No worries, the vet opens at 9:30 am, and after a quick call, we got her in to a 10 am appointment to have her chin stitched up. I'll spare you with the details of how Libby went crazy in the vet, got swiped at by a cat roaming the office, got into a growling match with the office's Doberman Pincher puppy, and instead of getting stitches, just had a few staples put in while being held down by Matt and the office manager. Oh wait, I just told you about them.

Anyway, it was a quick trip to the vet, we left under $200, and Libby has to now wear that darn Elizabethan collar so that she doesn't tear out the staples. Now I have a follow up vet appointment next Sunday, a trip to the Government vet on Tuesday to get her departure papers signed, and a good-bye visit and follow-follow-up at the vet that Friday. As if I didn't have enough to do? Two more weeks dog... you couldn't have waited just two more weeks?