Weekend Update: Gone fishing with suicidal dog

Kerriann, Ripley, and I spent the weekend at Lake Tahoe with K's father and sister. The drive up was frustrating for me and scary for Kerri. Against my urgings, she scheduled an eye doctor's appointment for Friday afternoon so she could get out of work early with a justifiable excuse, instead of just wanting to beat rush hour traffic. (our last trip to Tahoe took us 6 hours instead of 3.5 because we left too late). So she got her eyes dilated. The problem is that over the past few years she's developed this intense fear of driving in the dark. Or riding in the dark. Especially on windy roads. So on top of riding on windy roads in the dark, THIS time she couldn't really focus on anything for the entire trip. On straight freeways. In the bright sunlight.

After much arguing and holding on to the oh-shit handle of my car, we found the cabin. It was themed. We'd seen pictures online, so sort of knew what we'd asked for, but I had no idea how crazy it would be. My maternal grandfather would have been in heaven with all the fishing gear strewn about the place, meant to be decorations. Ripley was right at home because of all the animal skins lying about the place. Much lab report grading ensued. There was more puppy frolicking in the lake. Money was lost in casinos. Uno marathons were played. We soaked in a possessed hot tub (the jets would turn on by themselves).

We went to Austin's Restaurant for dinner Saturday night. This place caters to the mountain man, with entrees like chicken fried steak (breaded, deep fried beef), chicken fried chicken (that's right, not just fried chicken, but *chicken* fried chicken), pork chops (3), 16 oz. of salisbury steak, etc. I tried to go veggie, ordering the French onion soup, a house salad, and the marinated portabella mushroom. I was stuffed halfway through my soup and salad. Good solid eats. Check them out (they're in Incline Village).

We packed up Sunday morning and were just about to leave when I realized I couldn't find my cell phone. We searched forever, then decided to retrace our steps from Saturday night. We checked the Wells Fargo ATM - no dice - then headed back to Austin's. When we returned to the restaurant, we were met with a sign telling us they had just closed the night before for two weeks for a vacation. That's right. Not opening again until November 20th. How do these things always happen to me? The great part is I could *HEAR* my phone ringing. No mistaking my ringtone of Madonna, loud and clear through the door of the restaurant - "ring, ring, ring goes the telephone, I'm done. I'm hanging up on you." A nice woman at the apartment complex next door asked to help. She knows the owners. She made some calls. They were all already out of town.

So don't try me on my cell for two weeks.

The drive home was uneventful. More urging from the passenger seat to slow down, more insistance from the driver's seat that we weren't going very fast.

I dropped Kerriann off at hospice on our way home. In an effort to unload the car alone sans dog, I left her in the house unsupervised for about five minutes while I made a second trip downstairs to get our stuff. I opened the door with an armload of luggage and food to find a very guilty looking dog who immediately slunk out onto the porch. I found half a leftover Enteman's chocolate cake in an overturned box on the floor of the living room.

Anger mixed with intense worry.
Chocolate is toxic to dogs.
Right?
Is that an exaggeration?
How much is too much?
It's Sunday. Our vet is closed.
Google search "chocolate dogs"

"You can recognize that your dog has eaten a toxic dose of chocolate from the symptoms. Within the first few hours, the evidence includes vomiting, diarrhea or hyperactivity. As time passes and there's increased absorption of the toxic substance, you'll see an increase in the dog's heart rate, which can cause arrhythmia, restlessness, hyperactivity, muscle twitching, increased urination or excessive panting. This can lead to hyperthermia, muscle tremors, seizures, coma and even death."

How to treat a dog with chocolate poisoning:

Induce vomiting - use hydrogen peroxide or syrup of ipecac

We don't have any
Old fashioned way?
Yuck
Dogs have no gag reflex
Call emergency vet

For a 35 lb. dog, a toxic dose of milk chocolate is 4 lbs. (wow!)
Of dark chocolate it's 10 oz.

She's probably safe, but may just have GI tract problems.

whew.

Is this what it feels like to be a parent all the time?