Pup Crisis, again

Yesterday afternoon in the horribly oppressive heat I came home to let the dog out and work on my computer a bit. Earlier I had been at the hospital all day with my grandmother who was awaiting a heart cath. I was behind in my email correspondence and a half dozen other things because the firewalls my husband put on my computer prevented me from getting on the public internet. Thus, my day resulted in an impromptu family reunion in a waiting room. I don't mind catching up with my family, it just made me itchy to get on the computer when I got home.

I say all this so you understand why I may have let the dog stay outside a bit longer than normal on a 105 heat index day. I did check on him once and in that moment he was fine.

Less than ten minutes later I caught sight of him... foaming at the mouth, woozy and wobbly on his feet, hair along his back standing straight up. Poor thing. I couldn't tell if he was having a seizure again, or heat stroke, or some goofy neighbor had given him beer.

You've read about my dog before... he eats rocks, tissues, and Barbie doll shoes. Duke sheds more pounds than he eats. Lately he has been stealing my daughters half-ripe tomatoes right off of the vine. Duke's only two remarkable qualities are he doesn't bark and he is darn cute.

He didn't smell like beer so I am now assuming that it was one of the other two issues. After a day at the hospital... I was a mess trying to figure out how to help this 100 pounds of fur. Getting him hydrated took three bowls of water. Finally, I got him to lay down in front of a box fan as he slowly regained his coordination.

Then, he was fine. And I was not.