Nathan Exposed » 2 Fools and A Dog

Rodney and I have been duped… by a four legged animal that barks at his own reflection.

First of all, did you know that dogs can get colds? Neither did we.

The drama all started Saturday night, when our dog Petey started acting strangely. He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink, had a runny nose, a temperature, and seemed unusually weak. Oh, and he was also coughing and wheezing.

We called the 24-hour emergency vet to describe his symptoms. They advised us that he probably just had a cold, nothing to worry about. Dogs get colds?

We wanted to bring Petey in, but they told us they really think we shouldn’t. An after hours visit would be very expensive, and they said we should hold off until Monday to bring him in during regular business hours, unless he showed signs of truly being ill (vomiting, diarrhea, etc…)

Petey didn’t seem any better Sunday morning. He acted as if eating was too much work, so I finally crushed his food into tiny pieces so he could just lick it off a plate. That did the trick, but he still seemed sick. So I called the emergency vet again, and they said we could give him a baby aspirin. We did that and he seemed to be doing a little better.

The bottle said to give 1 aspirin every 4 hours, but we waited 5 just to be safe. So 5 hours later, Petey got another aspirin. Fast forward to that evening when I was reading up on things online, only to discover with dogs, you’re supposed to wait 12 hours!

I panicked, thinking he was poisoned. I tried to pick him up, and he shrieked like I’d never heard before. I tried to get him to walk, and he collapsed on his stomach, as if his legs no longer functioned.

Now we were really scared. We took him outside to walk, which he always loves. No movement. He acted paralyzed.

We hopped in the car and rushed to the emergency vet. Petey would not even stand up at all.

The doctor picked him up and took him in the other room. Suddenly we heard the jangle of his collar as he started running up and down the room!!!

She opened the door to show us what he was doing, and Petey was caught in the act.

We felt like total fools. We brought this dog in, worried and crying because we thought he was on his death bed. You give him one minute behind a closed door and he’s running around like he’s in a marathon.

That’s when we got served with a $91 after hours vet bill. Ouch.

But I can’t complain, because every time we called the vet, they told us not to bring Petey over unless we really had to, because it would be expensive. They were very upfront about the bill and encouraged us to try and wait until Monday to see our regular vet during business hours.

Bad doggie. Petey knows we’re his puppets, and really got us good this time.

Yes, I do believe he was sick. But as far as not being able to walk… I think we were tricked by a drama queen.