Hell might be an exaggeration, but a slight one. It was really just the Thursday before July 4th. And it was more of a miserable, stressful nightmare than total and complete hell on earth.
I took a couple days off (Wednesday and Thursday since Friday was a holiday). I figured Wednesday would be a nice mommy and Sev day, and it was. We went to the Capron Zoo and he had a blast. It was so much fun. Ollie got sick that night. He's a big dog, so when he gets sick, it's usually pretty gnarly. J and I decided to take precautions and put him on the upset belly diet immediately. We didn't want a repeat of the four days of terror that we experienced when we first moved in (Ollie apparently doesn't do well with changes and poor Lucy took the blame for a day or two before we figured out it was Ollie who was making horrific messes in the basement. In retrospect, there's no possible way Lucy could have made THAT much of a mess. So sorry, little Lu-lu).
Thursday I expected to drop Sev off at school and then go home to work on some unpacking and organizing at home before going back to pick him up at the end of the day. For Friday I had made an early appointment with Lucy's groomer and then we had plans to go to Ikea with J's parents, who are up visiting from Florida. I was really looking forward to getting things done and spending time with family.
Thursday started off on track. I got Severin ready for water play day. We left for daycare around 9, Sevi covered in sunscreen, decked out in bathing suit and water shoes, towel and change of clothes packed away with his lunch. I dropped him off, went to get an iced coffee and then swung back around to watch for a little while as his group went out to play in the sprinklers and water activity areas. It was wonderful fun and such a great way to start the day.
I stopped to take care of a few errands and around 11:30 I picked up lunch at Garden Grille for me and J, who was working at home for the day.
As I headed home, ready to tackle boxes and bins, closet organization and furniture placement, I got a call from Lucy's groomer. They had a 12:30 opening if I wanted to take it. I told them I'd love to, though I'd be a little late. They said no problem, so I stopped home, sucked down my tofu blt with avocado, and packed up miss Lucy for her spa date. The downstairs, where poor Ollie was being kept in quarantine, was clean, so I quietly and unwilling to jinx our luck, hoped the upset belly issues he had were over.
I dropped Lucy off at the groomer and took care of a few more errands as I waited the 90 minutes or so until she was ready for pick-up. I spoke with J about just getting Sev and bringing him home early once Lucy was ready. I was down in the Providence area anyhow, and my plans to get things done at the house were already shot. There was no sense in driving back to North Attleboro just to turn around a couple hours later to go down to Cranston. J agreed that it was the best thing to do. We'd make good use of the extra time to have some fun with Sev.
After getting Lucy, who smelled wonderful and felt like she was made of velvet, we headed down, through tons of traffic, to pick up Sev. Sev was excited for the early pick up and happily walked with me to the car. As I buckled him into his car seat I noticed Lucy, who up till that moment had been very good about staying on her blanketed (to contain dog hair) passenger side, was standing on the driver's side, facing toward the door. I finished up securing Sev and walked over to open the car door and scoot her over to her side of the car again. She wasn't listening, so I was just about to move her when I noticed the look on her face was not a good one. Within a second she heaved and threw up all over the place. I was stunned. I had nothing in the car that could handle this disgusting mess. She had hit the side of the driver's seat and it had travelled down the side and pooled up under the seat. It was beyond disgusting. I was given paper towels, Clorox wipes and a plastic bag by the sympathetic daycare ladies. I used the entire roll of paper towels and it was still everywhere. I had saved the last 20 or so squares to fold up and sit on so I wouldn't be sitting directly on gross dog vomit.
I got in the car, rolled down all the windows, and got on 95 to head home.
Traffic was now backed up everywhere. We crawled slowly up toward Providence. Lucy seemed stressed and uncomfortable. I was walking the line between feeling terrible for her, trying to comfort her and relax her, while forcibly holding her to the passenger side and warning her that if she did it again she'd be walking home. I called J to vent about the horror of being trapped in a doggy vomit mobile in horrible traffic with a dog who I was fearful might get sick again. I had no idea how I was going to clean it. There was so much under the seat and it is so hard to reach under the seat, and it smelled so bad. I wanted to cry and I wanted to just light the car on fire once I got it home. There was no other way to fix it.
We finally made it to our exit. As I headed down the main road, just a few miles from our street, Lucy began to look really panicked. Just as I was scanning for a spot to pull over she hit the other side of the car. This time it was the passenger side. She'd pulled up most of the blanket, so it hit the side of the seat and pooled up under the seat AGAIN.
OH
MY
GAD
No
I can't even
I just can't
I spent the next two hours cleaning the car out. It was a complete hazmat situation. Once I got all the disgusting nastiness out that I could reach, I poured Nature's Miracle into the spots (and by "spots" I'm referring to the entire area under the seat; both seats). I left the doors wide open to air it out, windows down for the next three days. It somehow smelled much better but was still completely disgusting.
J has given me his car to use until I can get it in for detailing. We have an appointment for next Tuesday. I am hopeful, but in the way where I think anything is better than it's current state.
Ollie seemed to be feeling much better by Friday. Lucy seemed fine by Saturday.
Dogs.
WTH.
