Our Miracle Mut

*Warning, this is a LONG post! It wasn't intended to be but thats how it turned out. If you get bored just scroll down to my other posts, especially the one about my friends dance convention...you dont want to miss it*

I've never really had any one post just about our dog, she is mentioned here and there but not too much. I always make fun of people that talk about thier dogs as if they were thier children or have entire posts dedicated to thier pets. But the events of the last few days have changed my mind and I will probably give those animal nuts a little slack from now on.

This past week we had an aweful experience with our little Cocker Spaniel, Harley. It was quite the ordeal but I will try to give the short version of what happened.
Harley got into some poisoned meat that was left out purposely by our Greek neighbors (they leave it out to kill off the many stray dogs that are prevalent in Greece). She was on a leash and everything but Gary could not get it out of her mouth before she swallowed it, obviously we had no idea that this is a common occurence in Europe so he wasn't even sure what she had eaten. I will spare you all the details of how ten minutes after injesting the "mystery meat" she started to foam at the mouth and fell into a 30 min. violent seizure, how terrifying it was when she died on the table and the vet just started thumping his fist on her chest, or how the poison running through her viens gave her hallucinations that were torture to watch.

What I will say is how tough our little fighter is. Against all odds and at the amazement of the vet she is slowly pulling through! Unfortunately the vet said he see's incidences like this a lot here in Greece, but Harley's case was one of the worst he has ever tried to treat.
She ate the poison Tuesday morning at about 10:00am. By Tuesday night at about 9:00pm the vet sent us home with an IV in Harley and said if her condition was the same in the morning that it would be best if we put her down. He also said that even if she did survive the night, she might have permanent brain damage because she was in siezure far too long. We bundled her up in her doggy bed to take her home and just tried to be positive cause we knew she could do it.
At about 2:30 in the morning we got up from a restless sleep to change her IV drip. She didnt seem much better but her breathing was more regular and she seemed to be a bit more alert, so we just kept talking to her and petting her. After a while we tried to go back to sleep. I woke up at about 5:00am to find Harley's little bed empty and a noticed the leaking IV tube that she had ripped out. My heart dropped. I have been told that dogs like to go off on thier own to die so I feared that was why she was gone. I woke Gary up and we started searching the apartment for her. I almost fell down dead. The little stinker was hobbleing about the house sniffing around, it was amazing given the fact that 3 hours earlier she couldn't hold up her own head. We also found a yucky mess she had made, but we welcomed it cause that meant her bowels and bladder were trying to work and get all that junk out of her system...a great sign!

The next few hours were long. She was acting more aware but she was very out of it. It was obvious that her vision was totally gone and she was very confussed. Anyway the morning finally came, she was still fighting and had made considerable improvement. We took her back to the vet, when he saw her he almost broke out into song. He was astonished. He gave her a bunch of injections and prescriptions and sent us home very positive about her recovery.

Right now she has a bad cough because of the liquid that went into her lungs from the seizure, her eyes are still bad but she can see. She is very weak & tired but is getting stronger every hour. She is eating & drinking on her own and even is getting some of her Harley spunk back. We are not out of the woods yet, she has blood tests on Monday to asses the extent that the poison effected her organs. But as far as Im concerned she is a miracle puppy! I will never call her a whimp again.

If any of you have even made it this far in the post your probably thinking, wow Jess it's just a dog. I always thought so too, oh shes just a dog. I always complain about her shedding, how hard it is to take her over seas, and how I never EVER wanted an inside dog as long as I lived and the only reason we even took Harley in the first place was to help my sister out (she originally was G's sister's dog).

Anyway, this week I learned that Harley is much more than just a dog. Especially where we are not blessed with children yet & the fact that Gary is gone so much, Harley has become my little shadow. Reluctant as I was to take her, Harley has become apart of our tiny family. Ha ha my mother even likes to call Harley her "grand-puppy".

She's such a great little buddy and loves unconditionally.

I am grateful for the Lords tender mercies and know that he is involved in her recovery even though that sounds crazy. I am so grateful for good friends at home and especially abroad that helped us so much while all this was happening. Im grateful for the complete sranger (who spoke english!) that jumped in our car without a second thought to direct us to the vet that saved her life.

And most of all...Im grateful for my little fluff ball of a fighter. As positive of a person I am, there were times I was watching her on the table struggling to even breathe and thinking there is no possible way that she can make it. But she did, and shes going to keep fighting and getting better. I will probably still complain about her shedding and probably yell at her one day for chewing up my kids toys or something. But never again will I take for granted how much I need the little mut in my life and I never knew it. Or how happy she makes my husband and gives us both a reason to smile everyday.

We love you Harley dog, you keep fighting cause we can't wait to have you back to your old self!