STORIES OF OUR PETS

Kai Bear, our little Shih Tzu of 17 years, was always one to seek after attention, always one to extract as much sympathy from you as was doggedly possible.

At one particular Christmas party we had placed a small bowl of macadamia nuts out on the coffee table for our guests. We all enjoyed the party, including our dog Kai Bear who would visit with each guest, sitting up, begging for affection and giving a well timed “Woo woo woo” whenever he thought he was being overlooked and needed a little more attention.

After the party, we cleaned up the crumpled wrapping paper, the empty glasses and the dirty dishes. A good time had been had by all, including Kai Bear.

A few days later, Kai Bear began to feel a little sluggish. We thought it might just be his way of showing withdrawals from all the holiday partying, but it soon started to get worse. He was no longer his playful self; he confined himself to his bed, shivering, whimpering and in general looking pretty sad.

We moved his bed into the bathroom where he could be closer to the warmth of the furnace hot air vent, but to no avail; he was still shivering, he would not eat, and he would not raise his head to greet us anymore, he would just roll his eyes up so he could watch us as we walked by. We would lift his little head up, but when released it would just plop down back onto his bed.

This was not like our little dog; he had never acted like this before. Rather than risk any more discomfort for him or perhaps something worse, we bundled him up and took him to the veterinarian clinic. When we took him in to the examination room he was practically unresponsive. They gave him a brief examination and told us that they would have to keep him overnight for tests. That night was a long lonely night for the both of us.

Late in the afternoon of the next day we received a call from the vet’s telling us that we could come in and pick up our dog; he was doing OK.

As they brought Kai Bear out from the kennels, it was the old Kai Bear we had known and loved. He was all greetings, licking our faces, wagging his tail and begging to go home again. When we asked the vet what his trouble had been, he brought us out an X-ray picture they had taken of his intestines. The picture revealed ten undigested macadamia nuts, neatly lined up in a row, causing a blockage which had been the cause all of his discomfort.

While we have had many more parties; Christmas, Birthday and Halloween, we have been very careful as to just how close to the ground we put our holiday treats.