Chapter 37 – Corn Dog

It was summer of 2014, several months after the first incident that saw Gabby hospitalized for kidney problems. I got up at 4 am to use the bathroom, and went to check my email in my home office across the hall from my bedroom before I went back to sleep.  Both dogs were sleeping soundly in the bed when I got up.
After I sat down to check the email, I heard a “thump” come from the bedroom, without any steps following it.  The sound was too soft to be Beni.  Did she…

I opened the door, turned on the light and Gabby was on all fours, hunched over and a bit stiff. She had jumped off the bed and stuck the landing like a gymnast, which is why I didn’t hear any steps after.  She looked at me with a slightly pained expression that said, “I shouldn’t have done that…”  She had woken up, I was not there so she jumped off the bed to find me.  It was Little Miss Separation Anxiety kicking in again.  I wasn’t expecting it at 4 am at night in the dark, when she was sound asleep under the covers. Under these conditions, she usually gave me a few minutes to come back before she went off looking.

She could walk but seemed stiff, so in the morning I took her to the ER for evaluation. Doctor Lopez said she was fine, but that some frozen vegetables on her back might help.  She warned me there was a good chance she wouldn’t tolerate it, though.

I tried with some frozen corn at home. Tolerate it, she did!   She stayed like this for 2 hours, just looking around, putting her head down and relaxing, watching me move around the room, without ever moving or the corn falling off her back.  It was so funny!