4_9_10 Update

Oh man. Not a good day for poor little Elvis.

We were scheduled to take him to the clinic this morning for a quick checkup and his booster shot. We'd gotten the stuff in the van, and all that was left was for Randall to take him out and put him in his crate.

He walked out the utility room door into the garage with Elvis in his arms, saw the door was down, and hit the button to raise it. Big mistake. It blew Elvis' mind. Got him in the crate and while Randall had run back inside for something, Elvis expressed his anal glands. So out I get, open the door to the crate and catch him just in time as he launches himself across the seats to the open door.

Poor little guy. He's shaking and coughing. Got the towel exchanged and Elvis back in the crate and off we go. Get a block away and I can hear him wheezing and coughing and obviously in the grip of a full blown panic attack. I had Randall turn the van around and go back for a Valium.

We got out of the driveway and started the drive over and in about five minute I could tell the drug was beginning to take the edge off. The drive to the clinic take 20-30 minutes and by the time we pulled in, he was about 80% recovered.

Got into the clinic and it was apparently the day for new shelter animals to get checked over. Everyone in the clinic was going nuts trying to get a handle on the new shelter dogs and surgery and Elvis. Of course, that set Elvis back off again.

Fortunately we got him calmed down just enough, but when Dr. Walthall saw him (and this was on the bench in the waiting room), she listened to his lungs and asked, "Elvis. Why aren't you dead yet?" LOL His lungs sounded bad still from his panic attack.

That aside, she said she didn't want to give him his booster because if he was doing well (and he really is), she doesn't want to jinx it. And, frankly, it's not like he's exposed to anything now and even if we brought in another dog, the vaccine he was given last year should be effective for another year.

So, today wasn't the best of days for the stumpy fella, but once he got home and around his buds, his cough went completely away and his behavior went back to normal. I'm just sorry he had to go through hell this morning, but like I told Randall, it's hard to know what will set him off, and there are times he goes nuts and you don't know if it's going to be a five minute episode or a 50 minute episode. This morning it just happened to be the latter.

Since things have calmed down now, I'll probably not post another update until early next week.