The best things in life aren’t things.
This is the tagline for our blog. We really believe that, however, there are times when we don’t actually live as though we believe it. There are times we hesitate to let go of things even though they don’t fit in our smaller home.
There are times when we go to a store and end up with more things in our shopping cart than we ever planned to buy. We are trying to ask the “Do we really need this” question, but that doesn’t always work.
This past week, we made a list of the best things in life that aren’t things. The event that prompted this was having to take our 8-month-old puppy to the animal emergency hospital on the Saturday of Memorial Weekend.
Sadie had been throwing up since Wednesday. When it started, the food was mostly undigested and we thought it was related to transitioning her to a new food.
On Thursday, she received less of the new food in her kibble mix and she vomited less. We thought we had determined the cause. However, the vomiting continued Friday, even though we had given her only small amounts of her old food and had completely eliminated the new food.
Saturday morning we gave her a very small amount of white rice and waited to see what would happen.
By now you may be asking yourself why we didn’t take her to the vet when she was getting sick every day. We honestly thought she was sensitive to something in the new food and other than the quick regurgitation of the food, she was acting normal.
Well, the white rice came up too. That was when we saw things other than food. Stuff like tiny pieces of an eggshell and little wooden splinters in the vomit. And a tiny bit of blood.
Unfortunately, our vet closed at noon on Saturday and they were not able to get us in a. They suggested we go to the animal emergency clinic. And so we did.
The emergency clinic hydrated her, gave her a shot for nausea, and sent us home with the instructions to have her fast for 24 hours, give her a small amount of food and see if it stays down. If not, bring her back for an x-ray.
Sunday evening we were back at the emergency clinic.
The x-ray showed a white mass taking up about two-thirds of her little puppy’s tummy. She had exploratory surgery on Sunday evening around 9 pm.
No blockage was found in the stomach or intestines. No sock or anything in her stomach. Just a greenish fluid and bits of plant material.
She spent a couple of nights in doctor’s care and came home Wednesday afternoon. She is recovering and back to her normal self. We are watching her very carefully when she is out in the yard.
The total cost for our Memorial Weekend pet emergency was $1,724.42.
We never thought we would spend that kind of money on a vet bill. We spend that amount on a refrigerator or leather furniture. But on a pet? What was our top dollar?
We didn’t have to ask the “Do we really need this” question.
Our pets are one of the best things in our life. And they are NOT things. They are part of us. A part of our family.
This experience forced us to put more value on the things that are not things. Because of this emergency, some of the other things that we may want to buy will just have to wait.
Because of this, we made of list of what is really important to us. The best things that really count. Not material things. We listed seven things, one each day of the week. They are not in any order. All are what we believe to be our top best things that aren’t things.
What are your best things in life? Share some of them in the comments.
