Is Buffy making me pathetic?

“you are turning pathetic!! Imagine when you really are a father!”

One of my friends wrote this in response to last week’s post about Buffy, and you know, she’s right. On Saturday, I had to induce vomiting on Buffy because she ate some chewing gum and watching her lap up the mixture of hydrogen peroxide and milk and then puke over and over and I experienced this intense feeling of fear, helplessness and most of all guilt. I saw Buffy going for that piece of gum on the ground and before I could get it out of her mouth, it was gone and because of my error, I had to force my little girl to throw up.

Things ended up fine, she threw up the gum quickly, and afterward she preceded to fall asleep and later she was playing as if nothing had happened. This whole ordeal was probably more traumatic for me than it was for Buffy.

That wasn’t the first time that day that my paternal instinct kicked in overtime. Earlier in the afternoon Buffy was running around and playing with another puppy. The other puppy was a little bit older and a lot more hyper so her owner kept her on leash so that Buffy could approach and get to know this other puppy as she felt comfortable. As both dogs got to know each other the other puppy was let off her leash and Buffy and this puppy rolled around and chased each other.

Aww. . . look at them play, so cute . . . UNTIL the other puppy slide tackles Buffy. Diana quickly swept Buffy up, the other dog backed off and once Buffy had calmed down Diana let her down and to our dismay, Buffy was walking with a limp. Her back right leg was bothering her and as I watched Buffy limp around I was overcome with a feeling of wanting to drop-kick the other dog for messing with Buffy. However, this proved unnecessary, as Buffy was fine after a couple minutes. Little did I know that only a couple hours later Buffy would go through a more serious ordeal.

Now Buffy tries to eat EVERYTHING and in general that’s not such a bad thing but we do live in the city and on our short “walks” there is a lot for her to try to eat and chew on. So when she started going for that piece of gum on the ground and then it was gone. I reached into her mouth and I found nothing.

I don’t really know all that much about dogs mind you so I figured I should call Buffy’s vet to double check on this gum issue. Since it was a Saturday, the vet’s office was closed so I called the local animal hospital and they told me to call animal poison control.

Now Animal Poison Control Center (ASPCA) is an organization that provides resources for pet owners included a 24/7 hot line for questions about animal emergencies. I called up the number and one of the recorded prompts informed me that there was a fee involved to get a “consultation.” I immediately hung up the phone thinking this was bogus. I could probably find out the information I needed on the internet, right? But as I looked down at Buffy, I realized the internet wasn’t going to cut it. This was information about my puppy’s health I needed, not a recipe for pulled pork I was looking for.

I called back ASPCA and talked to one of their consultants. I gave her all of Buffy’s information, she talked to the vet on call and she told me to induce vomiting with Buffy. Here’s the deal, sugarless gum has a chemical called Xylitol. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol used in candy, and throat lozenges. This chemical is harmless to humans but causes a deadly surge of insulin in dogs.

I don’t know if the gum that Buffy ate was sugarless gum and even if it was the fact that it was a chewed piece of sugarless gum would have a low level of Xylitol. However, Buffy is a little less than four pounds so even a small amount could cause an issue so to play it safe we got the gum out of her system and thankfully Buffy recovered after no time acting like her normal self a couple hours later.

I wanted so much for Buffy to understand that I'm sorry and I don’t how she understands about all that happened. All I could do was hold her that evening and try to make her feel warm and safe so somehow she could understand how much she means to me.

You may come to the conclusion after reading this that I’m just an over-emotional dog owner and that I am indeed “turning pathetic.” All I got to say in response it that I’m not turning pathetic, I think I’ve always been a little pathetic when it comes to the people I care for in my life.

And seriously, with a puppy this cute, I think you would turn a little pathetic too.