Jun 28 2008
Sock Watch
My sister and her family arrived today. Although I was behind schedule as usual, they had traffic delays from a flooded Interstate and an accident. So, I thought I would pull it off and have dinner on the table the minute they walked in the door. Really, this goal is impossible for all save my Mother, who greets you with an apron on and a hot meal ready. The lasagna was in the oven and I was upstairs putting clean sheets on the bed when Abby came running in the room. “Blaze ate Zeke’s sock!”, she proclaimed. I immediately googled “dog ate sock” and discovered it is not a rare occurrence. Experience said wait it out or give the dog hydrogen peroxide to cause vomiting. Off I dashed to the pharmacy (chemist). (I haven’t done that in a while and quite miss it.) There is a pharmacy near me where everyone is unhelpful. I usually drive to the one farther away, but I was in a hurry. As usual, everyone was unhelpful and it took me quite awhile to find hydrogen peroxide. While I was wandering the aisles of the pharmacy, my sister and her family arrived at my house. Gabe held open the door, Abby and Josiah stood quietly, and Zeke was asleep. Without their obnoxious Mother to run outside and yell welcome, they were at a loss as to what to do. They had made the welcome sign, at least. Initial greetings have not been very positive in my family lately. Upon my brother Howie’s arrival at my brother Rob’s house last week, Rob told me he couldn’t talk on the phone. He had to deal with a car seat covered in vomit. Anyway, I returned home and greeted my guests, but was soon outside with Blaze giving him a dose. Meanwhile, Marie and Rich had to serve the dinner and get themselves settled in their rooms. I was now on sock watch, but Blaze was not cooperating. He did not vomit. So, I gave him another dose. Still, he did not vomit. Instead, he ran around like a nut. For fear of poisoning my dog, I stopped. So, now I wait and I watch to see which way the sock will come out. My husky Czar ate all kind of things and I never worried about him becoming ill. When he was sick, I would tell him, “It’s your fault for eating that.” He got no sympathy. Czar was not crated. Instead, he was given the guest room to destroy. One day, I arrived home to discover him laying on top of the mattress with stuffing covering the room. The room appeared covered in snow. Czar looked up at me with a mouth full of stuffing. He looked like Santa Claus. If I wasn’t so mad, I would have laughed. Czar also pulled out the dresser drawers and ate the rollers off the tracks. He pulled the screens out of the windows and chewed them to bits. He ate the cord of an alarm clock. Never did I rush out and try to get something to help him. “Serves you right for eating that.”, I’d say. But with Blaze, here I am up at O dark thirty, worrying. Somewhere along the way, I’ve gotten soft.
Thankfully, sometime last night, the sock came up. When I went to take Blaze out this morning, he looked up at me with a sad and sickly expression. “Serves you right for eating that,” I said.
A new career for the Manry’s. I have played pictionary with Dale and an illustrated childrens book “The Czar adventures” would sell well.
All the exciting things seem to happen when I’m not home!
For the 4th of July, Blaze stayed with my friend Meg. Meg loves to knit. She was knitting a nice pair of socks and unknown to her, she had a keen observer. When it was time for bed, she left the socks sitting on her chair. She suspects Blaze stared at them all night. Her husband woke up the next morning and opened the door of the kennel to let Blaze out. Blaze, of course, ran straight to the chair, jumped up on it, grabbed a sock, and took off running. Meg’s husband, who wasn’t quite awake yet, got to experience the fun game of “catch the puppy”. Thankfully, he was able to stop Blaze eating the sock. Blaze didn’t understand the trouble he would get in, not from the possible upset stomach, but from Meg, who takes her knitting very seriously.