Last Monday, Percy woke up with one of his “asthma attacks”, which he’s been having for years. When we first got him, a vet said it was asthma, and to just try to calm him down when he’s having an episode. They usually only last a couple of minutes but this one went on and on and on. Percy then started coughing like he wanted to throw up, and then went back to wheezing. He would stop for a few minutes, and then start back up again. I thought maybe this was something different so I called the vet to ask if we could bring him right in. They said they were completely booked, and couldn’t see him until 3:00 the next day. They then said to give him a dose of Benadryl. The Benadryl made him sleepy, but only for about an hour. When he woke up, it started all over again. So, we bundled him up, and took him to the E.R. vet down the road. The diagnosis was a collapsed trachea. It’s not permanent but it does get worse over time as the cartilage in the trachea begins to weaken. So, the asthma diagnosis we received almost 10 years ago was incorrect.

The funny thing was Percy stopped his wheezing/choking right there in the pet E.R. At 4:00 a.m. the next morning, it started back up again. They had given us steroids and sedatives so I gave Percy one of the sedatives. He then slept for 9 hours straight! I’m thinking he only needs 1/2 a pill next time.

Anyway, he got up that afternoon, ate, drank, pottied, wheezed a few times, and then fell back asleep. His regular vet called that evening. They had heard about what happened from the E.R. vet and they were so sorry they hadn’t let us come right in. They were very concerned and said, if the steroids don’t work, they have an inhaler we can try. They do offer surgery for this (a stent in the trachea) but there’s no way we would put a 16-year-old dog through that sort of pain. Years ago, we kept Ali’s cat, Blotch, alive for too long, which just delayed our grief but was not pleasant for the cat. I vowed back then to never do that again.

It’s so hard to watch our furry family members grow old. 🙁

One of our other cats is getting pretty old, too. She is morbidly obese, but is as spunky as ever. She never has any health problems but she lives a pretty stress-free life. The only time she gets upset is if the cat food bowl is empty. 😉

This Week’s Masonism:
Mason woke up the other morning from what seemed to be a very nice dream. He got out of bed and said, “I saw my thinking for the first time! I saw my cloud!!”

Big healing hugs to all,
Angela

P.S. I want to “follow” you!

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WRITE YOUR MEMOIRS IN 2013! WE’LL SHOW YOU HOW!

HOW TO REMEMBER, WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR LIFE STORY! by Angela Hoy
Using Angela’s MEMORY TRIGGERS, recall memories that have been dormant for years, and record those memories in chronological order in your memory notebook. Using the memory notebook as your outline, write your autobiography! **Also works for biographies and memoirs.**