Worst Dog Parents Ever?

Get ready, get set, because this is a long story.

So, it was just a normal Wednesday night. Zac and I went out to eat some Mongolian BBQ, went to the library, and were looking forward to a nice, quiet, TV-less night.

Let me add in a little preface - our dog, Shisa, will eat/chew ANYthing. I regularly find odds and ends come out of her (well, see, I'm not digging around). If there's a piece of paper, sock, appetizing piece of wicker - anything - around, you can be sure Shisa will find it and proceed to chew on it/entertain herself with it for a while. I've also been sewing lately (an important aspect of this story.)

So, about 8 o'clock on our nice, mid-week evening, I notice Shisa is chewing on something. For some reason I think it's a straight pin (although I couldn't see it, so I'm not sure why I thought that..."mothers'" intuition?) I call on Zac to figure out what she's chewing on, as I usually defer to him to extract foreign objects from our little furry friend's mouth. He pries her mouth open, and indeed sees straight pin (a straggler from my recent sewing escapades) in there. Before he can get it out, Shisa proceeds, being the smart dog she is, to swallow it.

Zac starts freaking out a little, and I, who was raised in a laissez-faire household, was saying to him "Ehhh, no problem, it'll pass. I had a cousin who passed an open safety pin as a baby, the dog'll be fine." He was still a little worried, so we looked up the number for the vet technician on call on base. And I, as usual, Googled Shisa's ailment to gather the infinite wisdom of the cyber world. The technician said to feed the dog some bread to cushion it, and she was going to call the vet to see if Shisa needed to go in. A couple minutes she called back and said we DID need to take Shisa in, but the on-base clinic was closed so we'd have to find an off-base (i.e. Japanese) pet emergency room to take her to.

We called one place that we knew of (Noah's Animal Hospital), but couldn't get an answer. The second place, Animal House 22 (or something like that) answered. Zac tried to explain the situation, but "straight pin" was getting lost in translation, so we amended the story to a needle. We finally found the place, about 30-45 min away, in the pouring rain (did I mention? Of course there's pouring rain in this story.)

They immediately took her back to x-ray. Shisa's a very jumpy friendly dog, and we could hear the Japanese vet people saying "nishi nishi" (or something like that) to get her to sit (?) or calm down. Sorry friends, Shisa doesn't speak Japanese.

They brought us back to look at the x-ray, and indeed there was a small line in her stomach. I think I was holding out that they would x-ray her and not find anything, that Shisa had just dropped the pin and not swallowed it. But there it was, a little white line in the cloudy gray picture of her insides. The vet was explaining everything (in Japanese) as her assistant translated for us. Apparently, Shisa needed immediate surgery before the "needle" poked through her stomach and intestines. We could stay and wait or go home and come back later that night or in the morning. We decided to stay, since we lived pretty far and it seemed like the responsible thing to do.

During the surgery, other people were bringing in their pets. A couple of people needed to speak to the vet, but the technician kindly explained to them that the vet was in the middle of emergency surgery....Uhh, that'd be our dog. The one who swallowed the straight pin.

An hour-hour and a half later, the vet emerged. Surgery successful. Although, through some fairly rough translation (and many references to "heart," "too fast," "seizure," and "conscious," we gathered that Shisa had
woken up through the anesthesia, so they were only able remove the needle and not the abundance of hair they also found in her stomach (HAIR?? WHat?)

They took us back to see her in her little kennel. I think this is the part that just broke my heart. Little Shisa was just coming out of anesthesia, so with her plastic cone and in her little kennel/cage, she was stumbling around, falling down like the town drunk. It was just the most sad, pathetic thing you've ever seen. They explained she had to stay for a couple days so she could be on an IV/she couldn't eat to let her stomach heal. Then, when she could eat and keep it down, they'd let her go home.

Well after 10 o'clock, we headed home, a little shocked with the whole situation (and the cost of the whole situation). In a way, we'd gone through one of our first married "crisis" (if it can be classified as such), so it was kinda emotional (not boo hoo emotional, but you know what I mean) in a whole other aspect. So a few thousand Yen and a couple hours later, we were back home and went to bed after our "quiet evening at home." Funny that even in the smallest things (like a nice quiet evening), God just smiles (perhaps laughs?) at our "plans," and watches us go.

I guess fortunately we're getting all the kinks out of our "parenting skills" now with the dog before we have kids. We'll know better for our human kids to keep watch of the straight pins, or at very least know what to do if they swallow one.

So what do you think? Are we the worst dog parents ever?

A Poll: Where to Next?

The First of Many

A couple of weekends ago, Zac and I celebrated our first anniversary! I can't believe it's been a whole year. At the same time I can't believe it's ONLY been a year, and as you can see we've been through as many changes as some people have in a lifetime. Here's how we've spent the last year:

We got married.

We lived here for 4 months (well, in North Carolina...not a hole in the sand.)

Went on a "late-moon" to Cabo.

Came back to Texas, zigzagged across the state, and said "Sayonara" to all of our friends and family.

Our "last supper" in the states at Taste of Texas

And we ended up here.

We celebrated the Marine Corps' birthday.

Took a New Years trip to Hong Kong

Zac lived on this bad boy for two months.

And I met up with him (and the ship) in Singapore.

We got one of these.

Then we hung up some pictures, painted some walls, sewed some curtains,

grew some plants, and made ourselves a little home.

And here we are now! Happy Anniversary to us!

P.S. Just as the blog gets us connected back to YOU, your comments make US feel more connected. So comment away!!

Ummm, We Live HERE

Sometimes we forget that we live on a gorgeous tropical island. Although, it's easy to forget because it's been raining non-stop since FEBRUARY! But here's a little photo glimpse of our temporary homeland:

Back By Popular Demand...

I guess we've been slacking in the blog/communicating with America department. Sorry about that. Funny how having a job monopolizes your time...

I don't have any new pictures loaded (although there are plenty patiently waiting in the camera), but I can provide you with a rundown of the month...

May just flew by! It seems that the weeks go slowly but the month just skates on by. I've been working at the USO for almost two months now. Slowly but surely, I'm feeling my way through the job and learning a little about accounting and a lot about patience and playing well with others. I have this verse sitting in front of me everyday:

"I've refined you, but not without fire. I've tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction."
-Isaiah 48:10 - The Message

Not to say that I'm really facing any huge hardships like unemployment, financial strife, illness, etc. We are soooo very blessed in all aspects: friends, family, jobs, safety, health... It's those little things that put us off that we have plenty of - a huge opportunity to grow and learn.  In other words, (and as my mom would say), it's character building. Our character has grown quite a bit in the past month.

Also, since I've been working, I've come into some kinda party planning ZONE. Pretty much meaning in my down time at work, I just crave social interaction, and so I plan parties via facebook. It's been great to get together with others in the building for game night, cookouts, and whatever else! Summertime=PCS (permanent change of station) in military life, so we've had a lot of new people in the building, so it's been exciting to expand our circle of friends!
Work at the beginning of the month was a brutal whirlwind, getting through my first "monthly close." Then things settled down, and POOF, it was Memorial Day weekend! It was a big break that we both desperately needed. The weekend started off with one of our good friends' birthday party. Saturday afternoon we headed to the northern part of the island to a resort to celebrate or first anniversary for a couple of nights. It was so great to relax and spend time with each other and away from responsibility and chores. We also stopped by a glass blowing place and bought some glasses - Zac even made one on his own!

I'm glad to see the "rainy season" wind down. And I'm talking R-A-I-N-Y. It rained, I'd say, at least 80% of the past two months. Sunshine is a welcome treat! Although the end of rainy season comes with the beginning of typhoon season. But growing up in coastal Texas has certainly prepared us for the typhoon season ahead. {Typhoons are the Pacific's version of hurricanes.} Speaking of nature, we experienced our second semi-major earthquake a couple of weeks ago. I think it was around a 6.0 strength. I was semi-worried, since we now actually have stuff on the walls, but it was no problem...just a little swayin' in our concrete block of a home.

Zac has been really pretty busy the past few months, even after coming home from his "cruise." He's been out in the field a couple of weeks this month. He was at the range to fulfill some shooting requirements for one week - at which, if I can brag a little on my hubs, he did extremely well - it's a comforting feeling to know you live with someone who can shoot straight. Then he was at JWTC - jungle warfare training course - for 3-4 days, training in the jungles of northern Okinawa. He said it was really beautiful out there, and they did some fun (?) survival activities. However, in the middle of rainy season, we had camo hanging around the house to dry for days. Fortunately, June wraps up Zac's rotation with the MEU and within the next couple of weeks he'll start his transition with the next guy. I can't say that either of us are sad about it...It has definitely been a growing and learning experience for Zac with many "situations" to handle (including one at 3:30 am during our anniversary excursion!).

Thank goodness it's summer, though for the first time EVER, I will not have the summer off! Hopefully we'll make the best of the time we have. I'll certainly try my best to update with our latest adventures here!