Partners in Crime... and Emergency Averted!

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Oh, the joys of having 2 doodles!  Never a dull moment... I love a happy ending, and this story has a happy ending.

A few nights ago the doods were upstairs on the landing, lying side by side on their haunches, each with an antler. My DH was upstairs and I heard him come out of the bedroom, where he'd been watching TV, to check on the dogs. He remarked how good they both were! A little later, I stepped out of the study and glanced upstairs, and I saw 2 heads, side by side, peeking through the landing banisters, and I could not get over how cute they looked. My 2 rarely lie together, and if I'd really given it a lot of thought, instead of being overwhelmed by the cuteness of it, I would have realized it was a red flag... and would have gone to investigate. But, it didn't occur to me, and I didn't go.

Fast forward a few hours. Oscar was asleep in his crate downstairs, Lucy upstairs with us (Oscar hasn't yet graduated to that privilege). Lucy came to me,  with a sock in her mouth, wanting to play 'keep away' with me. I got it from her (she was adamant on keeping it!), and wondered where on earth she could have gotten a sock. Then I saw it, my sock drawer (the bottom of a chest of drawers) was open just a few inches. Not enough to get a muzzle or mouth inside, but enough to get a paw in. That's when I knew our clever Lucy had once again gotten into something that I would never have suspected she could. I didn't think twice about the sock, until the next day.

It was a black nylon ladies dress type sock, about shin length. The nagging question in the back of my mind told me to look for the other sock. By the time I got to looking for it, 18 hrs had passed. I emptied my sock drawer, and even looked through all the other drawers, trying to find the matching sock. I couldn't find it. That's when I knew Oscar had eaten it. Lucy had gotten it out of the drawer earlier in the evening, and Oscar had swallowed it. I know Lucy and she does not eat inedible objects. She never has. She'll chew on them and destroy them, but she won't eat them. Oscar, on the other hand, will eat ANYTHING. The 2 of them lying so prettily on the landing was when it happened. I could see the scenario in my mind. Lucy digging the sock out of the drawer, and presenting it to Oscar... them playing tug of war with it for a brief time, and then Oscar deciding it was HIS and simply taking it from Lucy. There probably was a long period of time when he just chewed on the sock, and then... big GULP. Gone.

I did not call the vet. This is something we've dealt with recently once before, when Oscar ate a neoprene dog tag silencer. We didn't know he'd eaten it at the time, and when he needed intestinal obstruction surgery we were surprised when the vet told us what had caused it. This time we knew what it was, but already 18 hrs had passed, so I figured it was too late to induce vomiting or have it endoscopically removed. Usually, vets give a window of 8-10 hrs max to do any kind of recovery effort of swallowed objects in the stomach. We were just going to play a waiting game. Oscar seemed to be acting his regular self, until last night, when he seemed a little less active, and I noticed him sleeping in a tight ball. I recognized that pose from all the other times he's not felt well. He usually sleeps all sprawled out on his side or back. When he's in a tight curl, he's hurting. Still, he wasn't vomiting or exhibiting other signs of distress, so we just continued to wait. One of 3 things was going to happen. 1. The sock would come out the other end, 2. He would vomit up the sock, or 3. The sock would get stuck in his intestines and we'd have to rush to the ER vet hospital downtown. Well, I'm happy to report that this morning when I went to let Oscar out of his crate, I found he'd vomited up the sock (in it's entirety). Yay! Happy Day! Emergency averted! NOW, to keep those 2 from being partners in crime! Between Lucy, the clever, playful opportunist, and Oscar, the eat-anything-anytime-anywhere little stinker, I've got my hands full! We CAN NOT assume anything is safe from the pair of them... EVER! For the moment, both my husband and I are happy and very relieved, but we also know that we have to be on our game and always be aware and conscious of things that the doods could get to. We've got to always think about how clever Lucy can be, and even though Oscar may not think of something, Lucy could. And even though Lucy may not eat something, Oscar would.

But, right now, in this moment, I'm going to bask in beautiful relief!

[Camilla and Darwin]

Oh gosh! Glad everything turned out okay, doodles can be so mischievous! 

[Donna K & Quincy]

Wow, they make quite the dynamic duo. So glad everything came out ok.

[Pat and Traveler]

Oh, boy!  What a pair!  Oscar, quit eating things other than your food!!  Clever Lucy, getting the sock for her bro.  Well, she probably didn't have him in mind at first, it was just the pleasure of getting the sock from the drawer.  So glad this turned out okay!