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The blood tests, bile tests, x-rays, all came back normal. This is good. A little weird, as there's still no concrete explanation, but it does support my theory, which is that this is just her sensitive digestion getting wrecked by one thing (a bad can of dog food) and then another getting heaped onto it back to back, like the antibiotics causing the nausea/vomiting, etc. They force fed her a little, gave her an antiemetic, and she's kept it all down so far. I will boil her up some hamburger meat in a few hours and hopefully she will be excited to eat a little. They also gave her an IV of some fluids and so she came home with a strange liquidy hump on her back that leaks. It is disturbing. Luckily it is just leaking saline, nothing bloody or gross. I will keep giving her the tablets pepcid and one of the antibiotics (but not the other that is nausea-inducing) and now also an anti-nausea pill, and keep feeding her bland people food and hopefully with some patience, all with be okay in a few days. I am still worried, but significantly less so, all the talk of x-rays and liver masses and blockages was upsetting, obviously, not just emotionally but also, um, I'm unemployed. Its bad enough to feel sad for your sick pet and scared they will die, it doesn't help to calm down from that only to worry how they hell will you pay for anything. I am lucky though, Sophie has another parent to help with expenses, I have room on a credit card, there is no talk of doggie chemotherapy, it will be fine, it just makes me aware and grateful. Also, thank you for people who left comments and send good thoughts, I know I have sent up many prayers on behalf of my friends' animals and I'm grateful to receive the same.

For those who have never seen my dog, or don't remember past photos, this is Sophie:
( pics of sophie )

She's about 40 pounds and as tall as your knee (if you can't tell since there's no reference people in the pictures) and when she's out in the world, her tail is always up and waving and she prances, and then when you talk to her, her ears go back and she wags and jumps on you in this slow way that makes most people reach out and grab her paws (even though I always knee her in the ribs and encourage others to do the same). In other words, she's a really fierce, menacing creature.

One thing that constantly surprises me about my dog is how much Dudes loves her. And by "Dudes", I mean butch men. And I mean ALL version of butch. Motorcycle bike dudes. Teenage corner dudes. Shirtless muscled lifeguard dudes. Old dudes on the porch smoking a pipe. Military tattooed VFW bar-in-the-middle-of-the-day dudes. They don't just look at her -- they will smooch their lips, click their tongues, talk to her and tell me she's a "nice dog", though sometimes they will actually say she's "so pretty".

Today I took her out in the backyard before I left for work. My next door neighbors were out as well and they said hi to me, then immediately went to the fence when they saw her. "Are you looking for biscuits?!?!" They slip her a biscuit through the chain-link fence most every time she's out when they are. She's wagging and wagging and licking their fingers. One of them goes upstairs into the house to get her treats. The other one stays behind and talks to her in lilting sing-song way. I am throwing away garbage while this happening. They give her the biscuit, watch her run over to the grass to chew it.......then turn their shirtless, camo pants-wearing selves around and go back to slap-boxing the isht out of each other.

ETA: I forgot to say in the beginning, that it was 6 years ago this month, right after Memorial Day weekend, that limenal and I adopted Sophie at the Chicago pound. They approximated her at 1 year at the time. So happy approximate birthday, Sophie!