You should probably feel bad for my dog.

Feel bad for me!

Poor Charlie's had a bad week.

First, we left him for Jeremy's green card interview in Detroit. He doesn't do well when we leave, and we were told he didn't eat for the 3 days we were gone. We were also told that every time he would be left alone in our apartment, he would howl for at least 15 minutes. (Well, "howl." For being a basset hound, he's not so good at howling. It's more of a really sad sounding bark. Still, I'm sure the neighbors loved it.)

Then, despite getting to play with his two new favorite dogs in the world, Huckleberry and Mona, while we were gone, the stress of being alone followed by the euphoria of being reunited with Jeremy and me set off his panosteitis. (For the non-dog-obsessed, panosteitis is basically really bad growing pains in a young dog's bones, and is really common in male basset hounds under 2 years old.) So, he was limping and whimpering and generally in pain within a short while of us coming home.

And, to add insult to injury, it turns out that Charlie is illergic to bees...well, probably bees. If not bees, some other mystery California bug that lurks in the grass. After taking him outside last night, Charlie's nose suddenly swelled up (Jeremy and I actually saw this in progress...), followed by lots and lots of doggy vomit. We went to the dog version of WebMD and thought it was something food related, especially since we gave him table scraps due to his not eating for 3 days while we were gone. So, we took him to the vet as soon as we could today, and learned that he was stung by a bee (or some other bug, but the vet thought it was a bee), which set off an allergic reaction. So, he got a shot and some pills, and is doing much better...although very groggy.

Poor puppy.