*slight* change of plans

at the moment, i'm housesitting for 4 different houses, which includes 5 different dogs. needless to say, that means a lot of running around town in the next week or so...sounds like a perfect time to take advantage of afternoons off and empty houses to do whatever i want, right? that's what i thought, so yesterday after work i braved the downtown tourist chaos and bought fudge, came home to find 2 chick flicks from netflix in the mail, and thought about uncorking bottle of wine or tea to make for a perfect evening. i stopped by one house to pick up the dog and bring her home so i could consolidate houses/dogs & thought everything'd be fine since she seemed to get along with my mutts.

things were ok until my parents called to check in later in the evening, and i realized that i couldn't find said dog...i ended the call as quickly as possible, afraid the dog had found a whole in our fence and snuck out...compared to what happened, that almost would have been preferable. i found suka downstairs, devouring my fudge as FAST as she possibly could, chocolate smeared into the carpet. i'd boughten 1.5 lbs, and i'm pretty sure she downed a good third of it! i panicked, since dogs aren't supposed to have chocolate--what emergency procedures was i supposed to do?!? all the websites i looked at didn't say how much chocolate was poisonous to dogs, just depended on weight and the type of chocolate, since theobromine is the ingredient that disagrees with dogs' systems. all i could find is that i should try to induce vomiting & administer active charcoal to absorb anything in her stomach. yeah, RIGHT.

i tried to stick my finger down suka's throat to get her to vomit the fudge up (disgusting prospect, i know), but she wouldn't hold still and kept biting my finger anyways, so i gave up on that. i didn't have any syrup of ipecac, didn't want to leave her alone long enough to go get some, and sure as heck didn't have any active charcoal to give her either! it was also 9pm on a friday night, so no open vet office, and didn't want to call with an emergency unless she was actually sick...so we went back to the house i'm sitting her for where there is a blocked-off linoleum kitchen floor. rather than sleep down the hall, i slept on the couch to listen for vomiting sounds and/or more serious symptoms. sure enough, about an hour or so later suka woke me up whining & i found a couple of mucus-y, chocolate-smelling puddles in the kitchen. i cleaned them up, then 2 min. later she added a couple more! so much for my relaxing girls' night in...it did not help matters whatsoever that my gag reflex is extremely weak--another indication that i am so not ready for kids!

so i spent my night cleaning up fudgy dog puke, taking suka outside to pee because she kept drinking water to keep from getting dehydrated, and trying to sleep on a comfortable, albeit not my own bed, couch. what a night...