A real emergency

We're taking a small break from gardening right now thanks to a real emergency in the family. Our beloved and quirky German Shepherd, Rommel, was acting a bit off this week and vomited all day and night on Wednesday. On Friday he wasn't acting any better and we could tell he was in quite a bit of discomfort. We took him to the vet and got x-rays and we were told he probably had an obstruction causing a blockage in his stomach. There was something large and out of place on the x-ray and the vet could feel that there was something large in his stomach that shouldn't be there - we assumed he'd eaten some trash or a toy and that he'd be better once it was taken out. He ended up in Emergency surgery on Friday. The vet called halfway through the procedure with the worst news. It wasn't an obstruction - his spleen was four times the normal size and was so fragile that his fingers were poking through it. They didn't think he'd wake up from the surgery.

But he did! Rommel did great during the procedure and woke up happier than ever. He's at home recovering with us right now. The vet told us that our next hurdle we need to overcome is getting the pathology results back - most of the time these things are an aggressive form of cancer. He feels quite positive that we might be one of the rare cases where it's not cancer, but he also did his best to prepare us for what could happen.

So we're still in shock and just trying to take care of him and make him feel better. He's only 4 years old and has always been a healthy and happy dog. Now he's all stapled up and is sleeping peacefully. He's wearing one of Farmer B's tshirts all the time to stop him from licking at his wound. After all, a tshirt is much more dignified than an Elizabethan collar.

And to top it all off, there's a hurricane headed our way too…so we have no idea how our poor little failing garden will do with that.

Updates to come. Send some good juju our way...we definitely need it!