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Bryce took last week off and we spent a number of days down in Laguna Beach at his parents’ house. It was lovely to relax and be with family. Bryce’s sister and mom also threw me a family baby shower luncheon. It was great to hang out with immediate and extended family; plus, our baby received some great clothes, books and even a car seat!

Saturday after the shower we noticed Francis, our beagle, gnawing on his leather leash. Lo and behold I go to check him literally a few minutes later and there is only about 2 feet left of his 6-foot leash! We were shocked. He must’ve thought it was like rawhide or something. We thought of inducing vomiting but considered that that much leash that quickly could be dangerous. So Bryce and his dad rushed Francis off to emergency care. They x-rayed him and saw all the leash in his little belly and tried to give him laxatives and an IV so that it would pass naturally. However, by Sunday morning his tummy was balling up the leash so we knew it wouldn’t be able to go through his intestines.

We stopped by to see him and speak to the vet after church on Sunday and saw his latest x-ray. He seemed a bit frightened and kept trying to remove his IV from his arm. He whined when he saw us and it was hard to see him uncomfortable and to leave him to undergo surgery. Surgery really was the only option so on Sunday late afternoon our little guy had to go under to get 25 pieces of leather leash removed from his stomach. We drove back up to Pasadena to go to our childbirth class and then drove back down to Orange County on Monday night to pick him up.

He seemed a bit confused — he was doped up on pain meds — but slept most of the way home. Besides a few eerie yelps when he was in pain on Monday, he seems to be doing much better today. He is on several meds and so sleeping most of the day. He doesn’t quite seem like our chipper little guy, but his nose is still really active. He gets to go back to the doctor next week and the following week to have his stitches removed. I guess we get a lesson in parenting a bit early!

I’ll have Bryce take some pictures of him so you can see how he’s doing. He did get one of those funny cones but we hardly make him wear it, only when he’s in his crate for the night so he doesn’t lick his stitches.

This entry was posted by Ashley on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 4:36 pm. This entry was tagged with Francis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.