Just a short post-script to the events of last week: as of last night, Ms. Moxie had not yet pushed enough food through her system to poop. So, we were getting concerned but since she was still very hungry, we continued to feed her small amounts of ID ever two hours or so. Early this morning, she went out and finally pooped. At 4 a.m.! After she pooped, she went barfies twice but then settled down. When we came back in, I let her sleep next to me on the sofa.

At 7 a.m., she asked to go outside again and when we came in, I gave her a normal feeding. At 10, she went out and had a very solid BM and we thought everything was moving along -- literally and figuratively -- just fine. Then, at 11, she started vomiting again. We called the vet and she said, "bring her up" and off we went again for the hour drive to Wildwood. When we arrived, Moxie came with me to the front door and then hesitated. She clearly remembered this place and the last time she was here was not all that pleasant. Reluctantly, she followed me into the waiting room. Where she promptly sat and refused to move another step.

Two of the vet techs came out and saw her so they knelt on the floor at the other end of the waiting room and called Moxie with their arms wide open. Moxie sprinted across the room so fast I almost dropped the leash, collapsed into their arms and gave both girls tons of puppy kisses. They returned the kisses and told her they loved her. After that, Moxie was ready to go anywhere in the building.

After another Xray to confirm that her intestinal system was, indeed full and working well she got a shot to control vomiting, a suggestion to reduce the feedings even more to let her colon catch up with her stomach and a kiss from the vet with orders to get better fast. As the vet was walking out of the exam room, Moxie tried to follow her. I guess there are no hard feelings.

So, she's home and appears to be feeling fine. No more vomiting and so far no more poopers. Hopefully she'll decide to do them at a more civilized time tonight. Linda and I are so proud of how Moxie is handling all of this but especially the human contact. She can separate the fact that the people there hurt her from the fact that they also love her. That's a pretty sophisticated concept for a small puppy -- heck, it's pretty sophisticated for most people -- but she has learned to trust people which is without question the most valuable thing any dog can learn.

Jim