I woke up around 6:15 AM because I thought I heard something. Rolled out of bed and went to start my day. Sirocco was on the floor but he looked like he was asleep and he didn’t come bounding out with me. That should have been my first clue something was amiss.
The wife got up almost an hour later and asked for a bagel for breakfast. I suspected Sirocco would have come into the kitchen to watch me make it, but he stayed in the bedroom. That should have been my next clue.
As I was getting the bagel ready, the wife got out of bed, stepping over Sirocco on her way to her computer. Sirocco let out a pained squeal I heard all the way across the house. I ran in to see what the problem was. He wouldn’t move. He took a little of the wife’s bagel so he at least still had an appetite. We figured we’d best get him to a vet.
The local vet in town wasn’t taking new patients. We ended up finding a vet two towns over that could see him. We gave them our information over the phone, then prepared to leave. I carefully picked up the dog to put him in the car. He squealed when I lifted him but I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He lay on the back seat during the trip and was mostly quiet but let out a squeal if we were going downhill or taking a curve.
We drove a little over an hour to get him to the vet. We got checked in and within minutes of arriving were in an exam room. Sirocco squealed a few times during this process. The nurse came in and said they were concerned about pain management. They didn’t want him in pain while they were working to find out what was wrong and were going to give him morphine. It was then that I found out what the problem was.
Somehow he’d managed to catch one of his claws in the S hook on his collar that held his rabies tag. I couldn’t get it out, and he squealed when I tried. I let the nurse know what I’d discovered. She took Sirocco to another room where they could work on the problem.
Within five minutes she was back again. Sirocco trotted in behind her, all smiles and tail wagging. She said they had to cut the S hook off his collar to be able to extract his claw from it. There were four people working on him and once he was freed he licked all of them and bounced around.
We thanked her for her efforts and prepared to leave. When we stopped at the checkout desk to see what we owed, they said there was no charge. That was mighty decent of them. It was a long journey for what turned out to be a very minor problem, but I feel it was better to do that than have the dog in pain and not be able to get help for several days waiting for a vet.
On the way out, another guy was there with a young chocolate lab, who kept barking. He tried to quiet the dog down, with little luck. I asked if I could say hello. The guy said sure, that the dog was very friendly. I went over and gave the dog some pets. He just wanted someone to acknowledge him. His tail was wagging a mile a minute. He stopped barking. I turned to leave and just as I got out the door, I heard the lab start barking again. I guess no one was paying him proper attention.
The drive home was much quieter and less stressful. When we got home Sirocco charged inside to tell Major Tom and Magdalena all about his adventure.
I took a nap.
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