Long, LONG Day

I had come home around 1 in the morning from going out with Jason. Once I walked in the front door, my sister called me to go upstairs. "Look in the hallway" she said, and as I glanced, I saw it was covered in feces... Toby had lost control and gone to the bathroom all over. Toby was never like that, he must have been sick.

I couldn't find him in the house, so I went out on the deck. There, on the lawn below, lay Toby by himself in the dark. I walked over to him, and he simply looked at me, but didn't move. I thought perhaps he was ashamed of what he did, and felt he was in trouble.. so I approached him calmly and reassuringly. As soon as I got up to him I knew something was wrong.

He wouldn't move. No matter what I said, no matter what I did, he just lay there.. perfectly still, looking like a Sphinx with it's head down resting on his front paws. I manged to coax him into following me up the stairs of the deck to the dining room door to let him in the house. Once in the light of the deck lamp, I noticed his hind quarter was covered in the feces. He was sicker than I thought.

By this time my parents were up, and Toby had again laid down.. only this time on the deck in front of the door leading into the dining room. Again, he wouldn't move. I brought a bucket of warm water and began to clean him off as best I could. Normally, Toby gets very irritated when people touch his tail or anything in that region.. almost always causing a twitch of some sort. He never moved.

Again, nothing we could say or do would get him to move. My parents decided to head back to bed, but I couldn't leave him alone. I got a pillow and blanket and laid on the floor by the sliding door so he wouldn't be alone. Occasionally I'd scratch his nose or pet him to let him know I was there, for at this point I wasn't too sure how aware he was of his surroundings. At about 4:30, I went downstairs to get something, and heard that he had come into the house. I went upstairs and saw he had laid down in his usual place in the hallway by my parent's bedroom door. Knowing he was at least in the house, I went to bed.

9:30am rolled around rather quickly, and I had to get up, showered, and dressed for Katie's sister's funeral. I was half expecting Toby to not have survived the night, but he did, only in the same lethargic state as I had left him.

Watching the grieving family was so hard. To lose a daughter and a sister so young.. I can't even imagine. The pain on their faces said more than words would ever describe.

We went with the family to Panes for lunch, and came home around 1pm. Again, not knowing whether or not Toby would still be with us. He was there.. nothing had changed.

I managed to take a brief nap before going into work. I felt like a zombie, and would never have made it through if it wasn't for the energy from the green tea pills I took before going in.

I was so worried about Toby my whole shift, and called home every hour or so. Nothing changed. When I came home he was laying at the top of the steps, where he remains. No bark, no tail wag.. just stares.

There was a plate set out for him with hamburg and rice on it, as recommended by the vet (whom he is going to see tomorrow morning). He hadn't touched it.. only drank water, and vomited it up outside. I brought the plate back over to him, and he finally started eating, and consumed most of the food there. When he was done, I brought over his water bowl, and again he started to drink heartily. So far, it has stayed down.

There is a chance this is some kind of flu. This same thing happened to my Aunt's dog two weeks ago, and she is a year younger than Toby. Aunt Karen thought she was going to have to be put to sleep.. she wouldn't move or respond either. We're hoping that is the case with our dog, but something inside tells me it isn't. We will see.