The Lola Invasion

Tonight was quite a night. We had plans to attend the Angels game sitting in the "Cox Box" (Cox Communications Sky Box courtesy of my bro-in-law) but as we were headed out the door we realized that Wrigley was not ok. Tom had taken him for a marathon run on the lake this morning and he ran the dog 3+ miles in 21 minutes. Now if Wrig's was a Greyhound, no big deal. But he's not and speeds that fast are not good for his hips, especially since there are some major hills along the way. So for the majority of the day Wrigs had been lethargic and slow and I thought it was just due to muscle fatigue since he's not used to running that fast. But when Tom came home from work and Wrigley didn't lift his head or his body off the ground, we both freaked. We cancelled our plans to go to the game and called the vet. They were closing but waited for us to arrive. Poor Wrigs was severely dehydrated and had acid deposits from his joints that stiffened his muscles (similar to the fainting goats!) He was put on IV fluids and given anti-inflammatory meds as well as injections for pain. Tom and I both broke down. We are so concerned with hip dysplasia and wanted the vet to reassure us that he is free from this condition. Sadly, he can't rule this out until the fluid in his joints and swelling of his muscles return to normal, then he can take x-rays and we go from there. Until then Wrigs needs to take it easy and in a few days can return to low impact activity.

Since we returned from the vets office Wrigs has been lapping up water non stop. He was laying with Tom in the family room watching the Cubs game and I was in the study talking to my mom on the phone. From time to time Tom would let Wrigs out the family room door and then he'd come around to the other set of doors (where I was) to come inside. So it was starting to get dark outside and I didn't have any lights on inside and all of the sudden I see a happy go lucky Golden appear at the glass doors in the study. I open up the doors and greet an OVERLY excited and jumpy Wrigs (so I thought). The galloping Golden heads into the family room and I follow after saying, "Tom Wrigley's back to normal!" Then as I enter the family room, I see 2 Goldens entangled in a "long time no see" lover's embrace. The dog I had let into the house was our neighbor's dog Lola who sometimes hops the fence into our yard. There was mass chaos for about 3 minutes as we tried to restrain Lola and calm our overly medicated Wrigs. Then an angry Chumley entered the room to see what all this nonsense was about. Lola instantly turned her attention on Chum and a mad chase ensued. Pictures were toppled and rugs were disheveled but Chumley still managed to get a few swift paw pounds to Lola's snout. Tom finally got a hold of Lola's collar and headed out the front door to walk her home. Wrig's just stood in the hallway panting and wobbly probably thinking the whole thing was a medicinal induced hallucination.

Wrig's is resting comfortably now and we hope that he'll be feeling better each day.