Friday, October 3, 2014

Benny Snacks

Last week we had about 12 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. At the house, we were lucky enough not to have any flooding. In the days following the rain, it was hot, humid and sunny. Which let to a bed of mushrooms growing in the yard.

Whenever I see a mushroom, I think of Benny. When Benny was a puppy, a very young puppy, less than 6 months, he almost died from eating a mushroom.

I had taken the boys out for a walk. At that age, the boys were hard to walk. They didn't really walk. Instead they just chased each other around, getting their leashes wrapped around everything. In addition to all their shenanigans they ate everything they came across. As I was unwrapping Henry from around a light pole, Benny found a mushroom growing in the grass and ate it. I yelled for him to stop, but of course he didn't listen. As soon as I could get to him, I got as much of the mushroom out of his mouth as possible, but it was really too late. He had already eaten a few bites.

I wasn't happy that Benny ate the mushroom, but I didn't think nothing of it at first. We finished our walk and Benny seemed to be doing fine. But a few minutes after getting home from our walk, Benny was no longer feeling very well. He started vomiting and having diarrhea simultaneously. Knowing that Benny had just eaten the wild mushroom, I scooped him up, wrapped him in a towel and we rushed to the vet. The drive to the vet was not far at all, but Benjamin was throwing up and have diarrhea the whole way there. The towel was quickly soaked through and by the time I got to the vet I was covered in throw up and poop. The vet stabilized him and then we took him to the emergency vet where he spent the night.

Benny made a full recovery, of course, and lucky for us, Benny got a bit more selective for things he tried to eat on his walks. And of course we never let him get near another mushroom.

I still drive the same car that I rushed Benny to the vet in that day. I spent hours and hours cleaning up the car, but the standing joke is that if CSI ever were to inspect the car, we are sure they would find trace amounts of vomit and fecal matter in some nook or cranny.