Zombies and Benadryl

I told you I would have a story to tell but I didn’t think and hoping it wouldn’t be the first night I had the dogs here at Matt’s. Matt and I got in at about midnight and went straight to bed (midnight is waaayy past my bed time). I was woken up at 3 am by Oscars obsessive itching and his collar jingling. I kept telling him to be quiet and when it persisted I went to grab him to pull him up to me. I felt his body and he was covered in bumps. It was the weirdest feeling. It felt like I was petting a reptile. There were small bumps all over his body. I felt this sick feeling in my stomach and rushed out of bed to turn on the light. I turned on the light and was horrified when I saw him sulking in the corner. His eyes and face were completely swollen and were blood shot red. His lips and tongue were huge and hanging out of his mouth. I thought I was going to pass out. My first instinct was that I had to take him to the emergency dog room and then I remembered my mom had dealt with this same thing with their cat and gave the cat Benadryl. My second thought was, “What the hell caused this?” and, “Oscar is going to die and I am going to be put in a mental hospital.” I lifted the blankets looking for some kind of insect. I also lifted up his food dish in case it was the food; I didn’t see anything. I really didn’t have time to find the culprit; I needed to get the medicine. I shook Matt awake to ask him if he had Benadryl and to tell him that Oscar was sick. He barely lifted an eyelid and told me it might be in the bathroom. I told him that if he ever has children I would hope his reaction would be slightly different. There was no Benadryl and so I knew I had to walk downtown to go to 7/11. As much as this post is about Oscar it is also about a discovery I had while on my journey to get the Benadryl. Anyone out past 3 am is a zombie. I have recently gotten into watching ‘Walking Dead’ and it is soooo good. From watching this fictional show I feel as though I have enough experience behind me to say whether or not someone has zombie like tendencies. I was the exception and there will sometimes be a few but other than that everyone out past 3 am is in fact a zombie. Every person I saw out at 3 am was stumbling, not walking. Secondly, most of the time while they’re walking their clothes are not on as they should be. Their shirts are falling off the shoulder and their shoes are gone (who knows where they went). Thirdly, every person out past 3 am is searching for food. In 7/11 there was a stumbling couple who was buying 7 pre-packaged sushi boxes; they were definitely zombies. These people out past 3 am also cannot make complete sentences when speaking. They often moan, laugh, snort, and sigh. They sure as hell can’t make complete sentences and they are totally incoherent. I was frightened. I was walking quickly through the streets trying to outrun these people in fear of losing my life before I could get the Benadryl to my first born son. I would come around the corner and see the zombies and if they heard me they would stop and stare and start walking towards me. I made it home thank goodness. When I got home Oscars face looked a little better. The dosage rule for a dog is 1 mg for every pound. One pill is 25 mg so I hid Oscar’s pill in a chunk of mozzarella cheese and it went down easy. He was fast asleep and snoring in 25 minutes. We woke up this morning and he was perfectly fine. I can’t help but wonder what it was that caused that reaction and I hope whatever it is it is long gone just like the minds of those after 3 am; poor bastards.

Making the heart grow fonder

I know, I know, I know…I have slacked big time. To be honest I haven’t been able to tell many stories because I haven’t been living with my angels. If anyone knows me at all you know how hard this has been for me. The hardest thing about making my decision to move home was realizing I would have to be without my boys for at least 7-8 months. In case you aren’t really up to speed with my life, in February I moved out of my apartment in San Diego and moved all of my stuff back to my parent’s house in Murrieta (thank you Mom and Dad). I had a wake up/mid-life crisis and realized I needed to pay off all of my debt before I turned 30. I knew the only way to accomplish this would be to not pay rent for about 7-8 months. When I first made the decision to move out I knew I could depend on friends to stay with down here but I truly thought I would be sleeping in my car 3 days out of the week. It wouldn’t be worth it to drive to Murrieta and back to San Diego every day because the gas prices are way too high. I thought I would have this comfy bed in my backseat and just park around the streets and I was actually kind of looking forward to it. Unfortunately, (but very fortunately) I am in love with my boyfriend who lives 4 blocks from my work in Little Italy. I have been able to stay with him for a majority of the time. I go to my parents on the weekends to see my dogs. They have been staying with my parents because I figured it would be better for them to have a stable place to stay and they love my parent’s house with the other dogs. It has been really hard without them. At first it was kind of nice because I could leave work and go straight out to dinner or anywhere I wanted and I didn’t have to worry about going home to let the dogs out. I also didn’t have to worry about waking up early to let the dogs out to the bathroom. Then after 2 weeks I realized that I looked forward to rushing home after work, opening my door to see their welcoming faces. I also realized I loved waking up early to walk outside and get a fresh start to my morning. Most of all I just miss seeing them everyday. Luckily, my wonderful boyfriend has let them stay over at his place for a few weeks at a time so that I can spend some quality time with them. I will be moving out in the next 2 months and am really looking forward to having them back in my life full time. A week ago I got home from work on a Friday night and I went straight into Matt’s spare bedroom. I cried for 3 hours that night in the bed with my face in the pillow thinking about Oscar and Diego dying. I told Matt, with tears streaming down my face and snot in my nose, “I can’t picture my life without them and I don’t want them to die”. Best boyfriend in the world said that they will still be around or 10 more years and I do not even have to worry about that now. Needless to say this has taken its toll on me emotionally. My mom says she knows when I am entering on the dirt road because they both start to get anxious. I can’t drive fast enough and the gate seems as though it takes an eternity to open. I park and jump out of the car running up to the door. I open it up and run to the floor to lie down. They both jump all over me and lick me like crazy for 20 minutes. This is what I look forward to every weekend. For the next two days they don’t leave my side. Oscar’s nub of a tail is wagging for 48 hours. When I leave on Sunday nights I don’t say goodbye to them because I get too emotional. I get in my car and half way through my ride back to San Diego I feel guilty for not having said goodbye. I see people with their dogs and I feel the void in my life not having them with me all of the time. They will be coming to stay this week with Matt and I and I will definitely have some stories to write about, I promise.xo