We are currently remodeling the house, or better said, we're building up a guest room at the back of the garden. Reason why we have workers at home and we've had them for a couple of weeks now. A couple of days ago, when we got back home, one of the workers told us that Lola, our dog, was kinda acting weird and that she had been playing with a toad. OK that's never good but we're used to deal with that kinda situation, Lola has a thing for toads. And the bigger and the grosser, the better.
I got back inside, get her milk so wash away the venom of her mouth but strangely, she wasn't drinking it this time. She wasn't even salivating like she normally does after playing with a toad.
And that's when it stroke us. She hadn't just played with the toad, she had actually ATE the damn thing. And she was dying of poisoning right in front of our eyes.
I called the vet, he told me to rush to his place and off we were. Dear Beloved drove so fast i closed my eyes the entire time. And Lola was getting less and less responsive.
We made it to the vet "in extremis", he gave her a shot, brought her temperature down (she had 40.3°C instead of 38°C) and waited until she started to react to the antidote to let us take her back home.
And the following morning, apart from her somehow stiff walk, it was like nothing happened. Dogs do live in the moment.
But 2 days after she almost died in our arms, another incident happened. I got home first and Bullet came to say hi but Lola didn't And considering she very nearly poisoned herself a couple of days prior, i went in the garden to check on her. Maybe venom is like an earthquake, there's the second wave of it after a while. Except that Lola was nowhere to be found.
We currently have an enormous amount of crap laying around in the garden because of the construction going on. And i check behind every single piece of wood, metal, plastic, bags that are there and still no Lola.
I called Dear Beloved and told him: Lola is missing, she's not here.
And he said: what do you mean?
How can we be so thick when you hear a news like this. Dude, i mean exactly what i just said, she is not here. She's gone, she's not in the garden. Bullet is but Lola isnt. What part dont you understand?
Well i looked in the neighborhood, calling her, asking all the people i bumped into if they had seen her and nobody had and i was pissed and really thought someone had taken her. I was crazy mad at the workers for not being careful and letting her escape. And Dear Beloved came home and we start scowling each other like it's our fault, like we want to find a guilty person for it . And he stormed out to look for her again. Unsuccessfully.
When we went to bed that night, a part inside of me died a little. Lola has been part of the family for almost 2 years now and not feeding her and putting her to bed was just excruciating.
I didn't sleep well. Spent the entire night twisting and turning in my bed and woke up like i had only slept an hour. I took Bullet on our morning walk, it was just him and me. He looked at me like he was gonna say: where's Lola? Isn't she coming too? It was weird and painful.
At breakfast, i was determined to make flyers and post them everywhere in the neighborhood. And that's when i heard a bark. That's when i heard HER bark. I don't think there is a single mother on this planet that doesn't recognize her children's voice. Well i don't have children but i have 5 pets. And i can recognize every single one of their voice.
I dashed out and headed towards where i had heard her bark. And there she was. Sitting like a queen on one of my neighbor's lounge chairs, waving her tail like she was saying: mom, i went camping and it was aaaaaawesome! Can i do it again?
My neighbor told me she didn't know which house was mine and that she was terrified of my dog who had sneaked in her garden yesterday evening as she was parking her car. I'm so glad she chose that garden.
And i'm so glad i have her back.
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