a bad case of the Mondays

by David Howie

Carrie called about 12:30 Monday and said Knightly was trying to climb our 6' wood fence. She said he could jump up and put his front paws on the top. He would hang and drop back down. She couldn’t do much with Aubrey and even if she did stop him this time and re-tie him, it wouldn’t be a long term solution because we’d have to let him loose at some point. So I told her to just let him be. She called at 1:30 and said he was gone. I figured I’d have to drive around that afternoon and see if I saw him. No telling where he’d be. So weird that he’s never tried this before in the 3 years we've had him.

I got a call about 3:15 that someone had found Knightly (my number is on his tag). The guy just lived one street over and around the corner, so Knightly didn’t go too far. They guy was very nice and said he’d hold Knightly till I got there. I stopped on the way home from work (left a little early). Turns out the guy went to school with me through 6th grade. Small world.

Knightly was fine riding home, and I put him back in the yard. He started jumping at the gate almost right away. Carrie said that’s where he had gone out before. He would get his front legs on the top and his back legs on the middle horizontal piece and use the diagonal piece on the gate to get up and over. After a few tries he got it. Very impressive - I wish had gotten a picture. I ran through the garage and caught him in the driveway and put him back in the yard. I went back through the garage and turned back just in time to see his tail go back over the fence. He’d gotten much faster. I caught him in the garage and put him back in the yard. This time I stood by the gate and took a big swing at his head when he jumped up. He didn't try again for a long time after that.

Since he had only jumped at the gate where the diagonal piece was and he seemed to use that to get one up, I got 2 of the boards from the half built shelves at our old house and nailed them to the gate to cover up the diagonal piece. It seems to have worked because he hasn’t gotten out since. Yesterday there was mud on those boards, but it seems like he can get up and over.

As I was tending to Knightly, Carrie hollered like something was bad wrong. Aubrey had been taking a nap when I got home and woke up about 4:30. She had been just standing in the kitchen and made a little cough noise – and threw up a ton. It was all over the floor and her clothes with big chunks of green beans and such. And it smelled horrible. Carrie was freaked out (smells always bother her), so I got Aubrey undressed and wiped off. Then I gave Aubrey to Carrie and I cleaned the floor. It was very gross. Good thing I had gotten home a little early to help with that.

Aubrey seemed fine after that, so we got her cleaned up more and I went to get her dressed. And she threw up again all over the clothes I had just picked out for her and on my pants and the carpet upstairs. It was much smaller than the first vomit, but still very yucky. So I gathered all the dirty clothes and put them in a pile outside. I cleaned the carpet and got some blankets to wrap Aubrey in for warmth and because they were easy to clean.

We gave Aubrey some water, and she threw that up too. Carrie went to get some pedialite, and we gave her that. A few minutes later she threw that up too. Later on she would gag and heave. She wouldn’t keep anything down and emptied herself out. The first few throw ups were very large but very easy. Later she looked very uncomfortable and would heave but nothing much would come out. In between she seemed almost normal – she would play some and talk but was less active. More just sitting or laying down. We all stayed home from karate and tended to her.

We called the pediatrician about 6:15 and they called back about 8:45 (very annoying). By then Aubrey was very sleepy. She didn’t seem hungry but wanted a drink. She hadn’t heaved in about an hour or a little more. They said to try to wait 2 hours after the last vomit and introduce pedialite very slowly. Hopefully she would sleep and feel a ton better in the morning.

Right after I talked to the nurse, Aubrey heaved a little again. We couldn’t wait too long, so we just waited till about 9:30 and gave her a ¼ teaspoon of pedialite. After 10 minutes Aubrey was fine (besides fussing for more), so we did another ¼. That was fine again, so we did a half teaspoon. Then we did a whole. And another whole. Aubrey kept all of that down with no problem. We were nervous but hopeful putting her to sleep. I got her all changed and pj’s on. She had no fever. She went to bed a little after 10 with no bottle.

During the night I went in once to give her the bear and paci. She cried out 2 other times, but by the time I got to the stairs she was all quiet. So I’d say she slept great. She woke up a little after 7 for the day and soon after had a big poop. We started slow with the pedialite but were soon giving her cup fulls. She wanted more, more, more at first, but after the 2nd full one, she seemed satisfied. She ate fairly normal on Tuesday and all seemed well. Praise the Lord.

It was pretty stressful at the time (and super sad watching her puke), but really it went pretty well - at least it didn't last too long. And Knightly is still in the backyard. So we're pretty good.