drew’s news

Our friend Alex stopped by the other day with his camera gear, and snapped some wonderful photos of Leo. I couldn’t resist posting a few. Not bad, huh? Alex is quite good - you should check out some of the stuff he’s got posted on his blog (http://www.door51.com/blog)!

Here’s Leo with a drum that he has taken quite an interest in:

…And a family shot (albeit without the dog - it’s next to impossible to get both our squirming kid and energetic dog to sit still long enough for a photo):

Thanks Alex!

Leo officially took his first steps last night! We were hanging out in his room before bedtime, just winding down. He was standing against the futon like he usually does, and I guess he wanted to go pet bother the dog just a few feet away. Without hesitation he just turned and started walking towards her! He took 4 clean steps before I think he realized what he was doing, then he got kind of a bewildered look on his face and fell on his butt. He grinned as we started clapping, then he started clapping too…

Our dog Uma is always on the lookout for anything that might be edible. Not unusual I suppose. Well, her apetite almost did her in this weekend - she ingested some bits of vegetation from an oleander bush and wound up spending the night at the emergency pet clinic.

We had just returned from a walk, and Daph was brushing Uma out front and noticed that she was quietly munching on something. She tried to get whatever it was out of Uma’s mouth, but Uma stubbornly swallowed it. Daph got a bad feeling as she noticed the leaves and dried flowers on the sidewalk - droppings from the oleander bushes that line the walkway. Within minutes Uma’s demeanor drooped, and she proceeded to puke several times. She shuffled inside with her head hanging low, lay down in the corner (clearly very uncomfortable), and didn’t move. She’s usually tired after a long walk, but not like this.

We did a quick internet search and got a consistent message: If you suspect your pet has ingested oleander, take it to the vet immediately! Yikes. Uma was barely able to make it out to the car, and as I drove to the vet she just burrowed her face in my shoulder. The vet quickly took her in and said to call in a couple hours if we didn’t hear from him - and we didn’t want to hear from him.

So we waited.

Thankfully we didn’t receive any calls, and when we called in later we were reassured that Uma was stable. It was a close call, said the vet. When we brought her in, Uma’s heart rate was nearly double what it should have been, and her gums “looked like crap”. They induced vomiting again, gave her lidocaine to try to get her heart under control, and charcoal to soak up the toxins. It worked. They monitored her for the rest of the day, and advised us to take her to the after-hours clinic for continued observation overnight since her pulse was still high when the vet’s office closed.

So we changed venue, and picked her up again yesterday morning. She was exhausted, but today she is starting to perk up again. I guess we’ll try to get the oleander bushes along our walkway removed. After learning more about the extremely toxic nature of this plant, I’m surprised it is so commonly used in landscaping. Apparently small children can die from ingesting just one leaf, and it has been used by adults to commit suicide. Knowing this, I don’t think oleander would be my first choice for shrubery to line the path to our front gate…