steph's stuff

He's back

The naked puppy is back!

I guess dogs have 9 lives, too.

We almost had an Easter without this beautiful boy. The Easter Bunny came as expected on Sunday morning. The kids were thrilled to hunt all over for the eggs containing fun Easter candy - lots of chocolate, jelly beans, and sour candies.

As usual, as soon as the kids found all the eggs, they sat down to start the trading process. Andrew loves chocolate much more than the girls do and he was happy to trade away mints and sour candies for pure chocolate - solid chocolate eggs and M&Ms were his candies of choice. And the girls prefer the sour candies so they happily traded away most of their chocolate. 

Which meant that almost ALL of the chocolate was in Andrew's Easter basket. 

Can you guess where this is going? :(

Tom and I both told the kids over and over again to keep their Easter baskets up high so that Sawyer wouldn't get into them. We knew chocolate was toxic for dogs and we had crated him overnight when the Easter Bunny visited so that he would have no exposure to the chocolate at all. 

And then in our rush and hurry to get out the door to head north to Michigan, the kids forgot all about their Easter baskets. They were so excited to get dressed up and to see Nana and Papa that they didn't even ask for any more candy. 

On our way out the door, Tom saw the girls' baskets on the coffee table and moved them up higher. He didn't see Andrew's on the low side table. And I didn't even think to look - I was cooking and getting everything ready to take with us. 

We had a great time in Michigan. Our Easter would have been "one of the best ever" if that's how the day had ended. 

Instead, we came home SIX hours later to find Andrew's Easter basket completely empty and candy wrappers all over the living room. 

And our poor crazy puppy was out of water and panting heavily. We didn't see the basket at first and immediately gave him some water - wondering why he had run out. When he drank the entire bowl of water in one gulp and was still panting for more, I started wondering. And that's when we found the basket. 

I don't know why he lived or how he managed to avoid worse side effects - the amount of chocolate he consumed was very, very toxic and should have killed him.

We watched him closely all night long - he drank 5 bowls of water, his heart was racing, he panted heavily and his chest heaved all night long and he gagged multiple times. But he made it. 

And we are so incredibly glad that he did. 

Why does he have to be so cute?

I was going to write this long post about how I photograph my Project Life pages. I've gotten a few questions about it and, as every other Project Life'er has commented, it's pretty darn tricky to photograph the pages when they're in the page protector. So, I was going to post this photo:

 

 

and then explain how I stand on a chair, position the binder directly under me, what camera settings I use, how to straighten the photo, and on and on. And I was going to add in multiple other photos of the process.

But there was a tiny noise behind me that distracted me. I turned around and saw this outside my office doors.

 

 

All I wanted was 30-45 minutes alone so I had closed him out of the office. 

But, seriously, look at this face. And the furrowed brow. And the pleading eyes.

 

I couldn't stand it. So I picked up my Project Life binder and let him in. We'll do that post another day. My mommy guilt couldn't do it today. 

 

The end of the widdle stuffed puppy

And this brings the saga of the widdle stuffed puppy to a tragic end. It started here and here and here and here and then progressed to here.

And now it ends. Sawyer found the widdle stuffed puppy this weekend when we were playing in the basement and now it's over. If you look very closely, you can see what's left of him (the white paws) sticking out from under Sawyer's chin. 

Rest in Peace, widdle stuffed puppy. 

Bye-Bye

Poor widdle stuffed puppy. :(

Look what he found

Uh-oh. Look what the crazy puppy found.

Found!

Oh my goodness. Look what Sawyer found!

Superdog

Antibiotics are truly miracle drugs!!! Sawyer is soooo much better and enjoying the fog delay with Andrew. :)

Poor sick puppy

Sawyer update: He has a bacterial infection in his lungs that he probably picked up when we boarded him last weekend. It has not yet developed into pneumonia - thank goodness!!! - but was fairly close to it.

He's on strong antibiotics and lots of Benadryl and is currently sleeping peacefully - which was much needed after being up all night coughing. I think I might nap now, too. :)

The crazy puppy is sick

Sawyer hasn't felt well in the last 24 hours and is coughing and gagging constantly. It's scary sounding and kept us up all night. Hoping it's just a bad doggy cold and not something lodged in his throat or something worse.

I'm calling the vet the minute the office opens today. He would love any virtual hugs you have to send his way today. He will thank you in slobbery kisses soon. :)