started off fun. had dinner at the restaurant. played rock band and crashed at debbie's. nice breakfast. oodles of fun at the museum of natural history. pizza. trip the emergency vet.
back up there, i think i missed something. oh yes, put "kimchi swallows sewing needle" between "pizza" and "vet."
that's more like it. and finish with "in the hole at least $4500."
seriously, it was an enjoyable weekend until the last incident. arthur was visiting and we were eating pizza at my place, discussing kimchi's stomach o' steel. cheeky me was bragging all about how he has eaten everything from plastic to metal to unidentifiable objects.
9:45 pm: i look down and kimchi is chew chew chewing away on something, giving me that "i'm chewing something i shouldn't be, what are you going to do about it?" look.
i recognize the sharp metal object dangling from his mouth as a sewing needle that had been left on the coffee table. he was rather enjoying the pink thread it was attached to.
attempt to retrieve 1.) i said in a cheerful voice "want a treat?"
no success.
attempt to retrieve 2.) i got the high pitch corrector and hit the "no" button many times.
no success.
attempt to retrieve 3.) arthur and i cornered him. every time my hand went in i was afraid he would bite me or try to swallow it whole to keep me from getting his newfound prize possession.
no success.
attempt to retrieve 4.) i put kibble in his bowl, assuming he would drop it from his mouth to eat.
what does he do? SWALLOWS IT WITH THE FOOD. it disappears. we looked all over for it, thinking "he seems fine, but it's definitely nowhere around, which means he must have swallowed it."
i obviously knew a vet was the next step but the following thoughts crossed my mind:
a.) how do i find a 24 hour vet?
b.) how do i get to said vet?
c.) this is brooklyn, how the hell do i find a taxi?
d.) i have 0 dollars. how do i pay for it?
so i called celeste.
q. what do i do if i think kimchi swallowed a needle?
a. call the vet now.
miraculously the internet, which hadn't worked all week, was working and we located the vet emergency group. they said all i had to do was come in. they gave me the price for the visit fee and x-ray. eep.
it took us forever to find a taxi - arthur went outside to flag one down while i googled taxi services in brooklyn (p.s. i don't think you can call for a yellow cab in brooklyn. seriously, they need to fix this problem).
arthur finally flagged one down, and the nice man actually waited on busy eastern parkway for arthur to run back and get me. the only problem with yellow cabs in brooklyn is they don't know where the hell they are, and they probably unluckily got stuck picking up a brooklynite in manhattan and had to return him to his native land. so we used the shoddy gps map in the back to direct him to the place.
on the bright side, i HIGHLY recommend this emergency vet group. located in cobble hill, the place is large and immaculate. he staff is VERY friendly. lots of doctors on staff. a + service.
they took him in right away to x-ray him, and then called me to the back to take a look. with my superior photoshop skillz, this is roughly what it looked like:
yes, that shit was straight up and down in his stomach. the doctor said the first step would be an endoscopy. given that things could be slimy and they didn't want to waste too much time trying to retrieve it before it moved to the intestines, the next step would be surgery.
with the 2 hour wait time and the $1300 estimate, we went to the chocolate room where i got wound up on coffee and arthur enjoyed a chocolate mint float. bonus points to the place for playing a beatles mix.
after leaving at midnight and walking for a bit, i got a call from the vet. endoscopy unsuccessful. he will be held until monday. go in for another estimate. yikes. $3000. arthur wins the prestigious "friend of the year award."
we go home (in yet another lost manhattan taxi), arthur crashes on the couch, and i fall asleep around 2 am. the doctor calls at 2:10 am and says the needle is out, and the surgery went fine. i wake up at 8 am and call my mom. we loaf around for a bit. i call for an update at noon. everything is still good, kimchi is sedate but wagged his tail when the doctor came in to say hi. they will feed him at 1 or 2 am tonight, and depending on how it goes, i will pick him up tomorrow, elizabethan collar and all.
what have i learned from this weekend?
- do not leave sewing needles laying around (actually i knew this one but it's worth pointing out if your or someone you live with has a dog).
- if you have a credit line attached to your bank account, make sure you actually get the card and activate it. don't just think "some day i'll get it."
- get a part time job. and finding an apartment in october is going to suck.
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