Wildly Crafty

As you may have noticed Dave has finished building me my new template.  Now the blog is completely hosted on wildlycrafty.com, so I don't have to worry about Blogger being unwilling to accept my changes.  I hope to be able to write more frequently again, I only stopped because I was getting frustrated and because I wasn't doing much crafting.  I think I'm back into the crafting mood again, although I don't have any current pictures.  I'll have to collect everything up and do a photo session.

Yesterday, Abe gave me a giant scare.  I let the dogs outside and then back in without noticing anything was wrong.  When I went into our bedroom later I noticed he was lying in a pool of blood.  He had hurt his foot while he was outside, I tried to see where he was bleeding from but couldn't find the wound through all the blood.  So I wrapped it up in a towel.  My usual vet is unfortunately closed on Thursdays, so I called the shelter to see who they could recommend.  One of the girls said that there was a place around the corner that did walk-ins, so I packed the dogs into the car and went there.

I wasn't impressed at all, the receptionist made me wait while she finished up a transaction with another person and answered the phone, even though Abe was bleeding all over the floor.  People behind me were commenting on how much Abe was bleeding but she was completely oblivious.  When she finally turned her attention my way, and I said that my dog was bleeding, she went in the back and came back out with some bandage material and some pamplets.  She then proceeded to tell me that they could bandage his foot but that the doctor couldn't see him because walk-in hours had ended a half hour ago.  Excuse me?  It wasn't like I was coming in for his vaccinations, or because he was scratching, my dog is bleeding all over the floor.

When I left I said "thanks for nothing", and she's like "well, we bandaged his foot so he wouldn't bleed in your car".  Yes, and you also told me to take him somewhere else because you were "too busy".  I have never worked in a vet clinic that would turn away an emergency unless the person was completely unable to pay.  I will never return, nor will I ever recommend that clinic to anyone else.

I drove the two blocks to the shelter and asked for the vet list and use of a phone.  I hit paydirt on the first place that I called, where the vet said that he would fit me in between surgeries.  So we drove over to Central Animal Clinic to see Dr. Rose, who was very nice as was his staff.  I explained that Abe had been treated previously for ehrlichia which is why I was so concerned about not being able to get the bleeding to stop.  Ehrlichia causes clotting disorders, and his previous outbreak was heralded by a nose that just started dripping blood.  Dr. Rose said that he didn't think Abe needed stitches, just a pressure bandage, and he'd give him some Doxycycline just in case.  (Doxycycline is the treatment for ehrlichia.)  I thanked him profusely, paid my bill, and put the no longer bleeding dog in the car.

Then it was home to start clean-up.  I'd called Dave at work and asked him to come home if it was at all possible.  The rug in our bedroom had three huge spots where Abe was laying and about a million little drips.  The bathroom looked like I'd been slaughtering pigs, since I'd pushed Abe into the tub to try and rinse off the foot so I could see where the blood was coming from.  The hallway and garage had spots too, as did parts of the living room.  It was a mess, and I don't really know how to work the carpet cleaner.  In fact I set it up mostly correctly, but didn't turn the dial for the soap on so when Dave got home I was cleaning the carpet with just plain water.  Which worked ok, but worked better with less effort when the soap started flowing.

Abe is fine, right now he's asleep on the couch, probably dreaming about dinner.