A Rough Day

 It was a cold gray day in the morning light of Arizona.  Storms coming up from Mexico have deposited inch after inch of water, soaking the desert even more.  It's an epic year for green cactus and palo verde trees.  It's also been an epic year to jump out of your skin when lightning cracks right over your head.

It was a sign of things to come.  My "kid" is usually doing this in the mornings.  I know, another doggie video, but he's so darn cute at it!!

On this morning however, he looked like this on the couch.  I instantly knew something was wrong from the look on his face.  He had the most pained expression I've ever seen.  My mind instantly goes to "what did he eat that was bad" or "what stung him".  

When he didn't want to walk down the steps and refused food, I instantly hit my phone looking for a Vet.  There are lots of them around here, but it's very hard to get in the door.  Most do not handle emergency situations.  Lucky for me someone said try Civano Animal Hospital and Emergency Center.  They said to come right in.

You know how sometimes you can tell when you walk in the door if this is a good place?  It was a good place.  I handed him over for X-rays and blood work.  Within 30 minutes the Vet was back.  

Like all us "old folks" (Cooper is 12 years old), he has been on basically an aspirin a day for aches and pain.  Mostly because he hurt his back ... you probably remember me sleeping on the floor for a week.  Well BAD MOM ran out of his pills and the California Vet wouldn't refill it without coming in to the office.  I didn't think it was a big deal, but it was.

X-rays showed his back acting up again, and with no pills, he was in enough pain to make him not eat and not be himself at all.  SO ... we now have pills and will curtail the ball playing for a couple of days.  This beautiful rainbow on the way home brought about a big sigh of relief.

The downside is I won't be buying any fabric for the next 12 months.  No one ever said emergency pet care was cheap.  It's okay though, cuz he's worth it.

Luckily I was able to leave him long enough to partake of another fabulous dinner from Miss Patty.  She made her Mexican Chicken Soup for me, which hit the spot.  The rest of the evening was spent watching Cooper sleep.  I know boring .... but Mom's a happy camper.

In the meantime, this is the only critter found on the game camera.  They are so darn fast!!!  

It's my last pack-it-up day, so I'll be busy trying to fit everything into the truck.  I'm going to miss all my backyard critters ... except the bats ... I'm not going to miss the bats ... or the scorpions ... or the spiders!!  I'll miss everything else though.