neurotic anyone?

Ok, so I briefly mentioned Bubba's hunger strike, because I was trying to make light of what was a serious situation. Every time I go away, Bubba freaks out to varying degrees. He's been doing really great after his last sick incident, had gained a bunch of much-needed weight and was being generally spritely and happy. The pups stayed with my ex while I was gone, and he fully expected them both to be a little pissed, especially he-who-cannot-live-without-mommy-because-he's-a-sucky-mama's-baby. It seemed for the first 7 days, all was well..but then Bubba went on a hunger strike. The dog walker (because the ex cannot be trusted to do the care and feeding on his own), who is certainly prone to some dramatics, was worried and called to let me know what was going on. I told him to keep me updated. Well, 24 hours later, when he still wasn't eating and now acting deathly ill, refusing to climb steps, etc, it was off to the hospital for the boy. That was on Monday. He has been there since.

After landing last night at 9:30pm, I went straight to the car and drove the 50ish miles to the 24 hour hospital where Bubba was. Not because he needed a 24 hour emergency hospital when he went in..it's just that his specialist is there. I have to admit, I went there expecting the worst and there were many tears on the journey. I opened the big glass doors to that place thinking I may just be there to say goodbye. It was an awful 10 minutes waiting while they brought him to me. Oh, but bring him, they did. Big cone around his head to prevent messing with his i.v., he booked into the room and pounced on me, head-butting me with his plastic cone head. This is not a sick dog. Skinny because he hasn't eaten, yes...but this is the least sick Bubba has ever been. I stayed there for an hour, thinking that once the excitement of seeing me wore off, he would surely show me the signs of the dog on death's door I was told about on the phone. Not even a bit, he just kept walking me to the door, as if to say "Ok, I'm done here, let's go home now". I will be heading back down there today, to see if he will eat for me. If he will, he's coming home, and I'm about 99.87% sure that he will. So, as the ex said last night, when I went there to pick up China and to tell him about the visit, Bubba was stressed out and missed me, so he saw fit to cost him thousands of dollars and days of worry and vet taxying.

Running tab at vet hospital: $3500
treatments performed: esophageal scope, biopsy, iv fluids, anti-nausea meds, boarding overnight for 3 nights
having the world's most neurotic dog who tells the ex that his love is not nearly enough to sustain him for 10 days: priceless

It's hard to be too mean about it, since I'm lucky enough that the ex was sweet about the whole ordeal, and he did foot the bill and he even postponed a business trip until this was worked out. That being said....

What can I say? The ex's love wasn't enough to sustain me either, I can relate. I just didn't hospitalize myself to make that point.