BarkingProse

Journey is a happy little mutt. She’s not even two years old and she already knows lots of commands. She has great house manners and everybody loves her.

But Journey is still a puppy and like any puppy her mouth is always busy. She has a nose like a bloodhound and finds the tiniest most obscure piece of food or junk to eat.

Mom has been trying to teach Journey not to eat stuff she finds on the ground, but so far Journey’s not cooperating. Sometimes Journey will trade up if mom has a really good treat, but usually she swallows the treasure before mom can stop her.

Last week Journey gobbled up something that smelled good. Me and mom didn’t see her do it and we have no idea where she found it or what it looked like. Journey couldn’t remember because she’d eaten a bunch of junk that day.

Me and Journey lay down for our nap like usual, but when Journey woke up something was bad wrong. Journey was lying in a big puddle of urine that leaked out while she was asleep. She was real embarrassed because she never has accidents in the house. Mom thought maybe Journey had an infection and was about to call the vet when it happened again.

Mom took Journey outside to go pee. Journey could hardly walk and staggered around like she was drunk. Mom carried Journey back in the house and put her on the couch while she called the vet. We were all worried something terrible about Journey.

Journey started to nod off on the couch. Her eyes were funny looking – all pupil and none of her pretty blue. When mom shined a light in Journey’s eyes, the pupil stayed big.

Journey woke up enough so she could get herself to the car. Mom lifted her up and put her in her crate. I jumped in next to Journey and we raced off to the emergency vet. I know mom was super worried. Was Journey having a stroke? Did she eat poison?

The emergency vet took us in right away. He watched Journey for a few minutes and asked mom a bunch of questions. Then he looked up and said he thought it was a THC overdose. I was just about to ask mom what is THC when the vet said, “It looks like Journey has overdosed on marijuana.”

What the heck?  We don’t have marijuana so where did Journey get it? I was wracking my brain. We’d had company the day before and there had been three different guys working at the house. But they sure wouldn’t have given Journey some of their stash. The little fool had to have found it on the ground or swiped it from somebody.

The vet said he could run a pee test to prove that Journey got into THC, so we paid extra just to confirm the diagnosis. Sure enough, it came back positive for THC.

Journey was starting to act normal, so the vet said she could go home. If her symptoms had been worse, she would have had to stay with the vet in case her blood pressure dropped and she went into a coma. How scary is that thought??

When we got Journey home she drank a bunch of water, ate some treats, raced around the yard and then collapsed on her bed. This time when she woke up there was no puddle of urine and the blue part of her eyes was showing.

Journey kept apologizing for causing such a fuss. She said she didn’t know that what she ate had marijuana in it, but it must have tasted pretty good and she couldn’t promise not to do it again.

It’s hard to stay mad at Journey even though she scared us silly. I’m just so grateful she’s okay. Stoned or sober, I love our little Journey.

 

I promised Ash that I would do my part to keep BarkingProse running. I’d rather be out messing with the alpacas, but a promise is a promise.

The hardest thing for me is to pick a topic. Maybe it’s my age but I’m kinda all over the place. One day I want to post a bunch of blue dog baby pictures. Next I want to bark about what I did in class and how much I hate riding in elevators.

Ash said I should take a deep breath, stop running around in circles, and look inside my head for a picture of what I want to bark about.

That seemed like a silly way to start the process, but when I did that I got the clearest picture of Tess. That was strange because I never met Tess in this life, though we crossed paths in the spirit world before I was born.

I started going through old family pictures and suddenly I felt like Tess was with me, inside my head and heart. I got the strange feeling that Tess wasn’t gone, we just can’t see her.

Tess was a beautiful girl. She had gorgeous red fur and a great big smile. Ash loved her with all his heart. They used to lie around in the back yard shooting the breeze and barking at shadows.

Ash taught Tess how to play bump and run, but mostly they just had fun being together. Life is good when you have a best friend, but it hurts something awful to lose that friend.

 

Tess was beautiful on the outside, but inside she wasn’t built so good. She had the worst case of hip dysplasia the vet had ever seen and surgery couldn’t fix it. Then Tess got sick. Tests showed she had a huge tumor in her belly and her life in this world would soon be over.

Ash can’t talk about the last day he had with Tess. His blue eyes fill with tears and his lip quivers, but no words come out.

After Tess died Ash used to run away from home almost every day. Mom could hear him crashing through the brush, but he wouldn’t come back until he was worn out and hungry.

Mom knew how lonely Ash was without Tess. She knew Ash needed a friend, one of his own kind, another blue Aussie dog. That’s why I’m here. Ash won’t ever stop missing Tess, but now he has me and we’re hoping he won’t be so lonely anymore.