Practice

When Drew and I adopted our dog Max from the shelter in February,  friends and family members reacted with a smile, many commenting that he would be good practice for a baby.  We're certain Max will make an excellent older brother for our son, especially after seeing the way he interacts with our niece, who I'm sure Max knows in his head as "the wobbly one who drops food."  He loves people and children (probably because of their sticky fingers) and has a great temperament,  but a bad habit of eating just about everything except his own dog food.

This habit got the best of him and us last week, when Drew and I had to make a late-night run to the store to buy more candy mix for the cake pops I was making for our gender reveal party.  We made the mistake of leaving a bowl of bright pink melted candy on the counter.  When we got home the bowl was shattered on the floor and our dog was throwing up a bright pink substance all over the house.  Drew cleaned as I googled things like, "how to get red kool-aide stains out of a beige carpet." The answer- you don't.

Eventually, Max's stomach calmed down and we assumed the worst was over.  We were wrong.  

More than a day and a half after he'd eaten what we thought was just candy, Max coughed up a chunk of the porcelain bowl about a half-inch long.  I stared at the pool of vomit and broken bowl in the middle of my living room, shocked.  I looked at my dog.  He stared back, relieved.  It was 6 a.m. I loaded him into the car with some blankets and drove to the emergency vet.

We waited for about a half hour next to a Golden Retriever who had transmission fluid for breakfast, and went in for X-rays.  Luckily, the piece he coughed up was the largest piece of bowl in his bowel.  The vet said the rest would pass, and we were told to keep a close eye on Max and everything that came out of him for the next several days.  Seeing as how most of what came out of him required me to mop the floor, we had no choice but to bear witness to every aspect of my poor dog's dysfunctional digestive system until it returned to normal.  Thankfully, Max is all better now and my kitchen floors are sparkling from more mopping than I think I've done since we moved in.  

I know when we have our baby boy, I'll get used to cleaning just about everything.  I'm sure there will be more early mornings, late nights, more mopping.  He'll get sick, he'll eat things that aren't food, he'll probably even stick them up his nose.  We'll spend even more on him than a $400 vet bill.  Maybe Max is doing us a favor, prepping us for what's to come.  Right now he's sitting next to my desk chair playing with his stuffed bunny and I can tell you truthfully he's so cute I won't even remember all that mopping a few weeks from now.  That's what I'm taking away from this experience.

And if you'd like a $400 cake pop, there are still a couple of leftovers in the fridge.  Max can tell you, they're delicious.