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<TITLE>REALLY REALLY SAD HARD WEEK IN RED BAY LAND</TITLE>
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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Last Tuesday evening we returned from a successful week at a dog show. As we were leaving FOR the dog show, Craig came down with a sore throat and cough, which got progressively worse over the course of the week. On Saturday at the dog show, Pat got the sore throat and by Sunday she had the horrid cough. On Tuesday, we returned home in horrendous heat and humidity. In retrospect, Pat was extremely quiet and subdued on the trip home, sleeping a lot and the cough was worse. When we got home, we got all of the dogs outside at my house, they explored the HIGH grass in the yard, got drinks and played. Pat pre-cooled her van and we loaded up the girls and puppies to go to her house. When she got there, she pulled her van into her attached garage and left the dogs in the cool van while she went inside to turn her AC on and cool down the house. She sat down on the end of the couch to listen to her phone messages and either fell asleep or passed out. When she awoke/came to, she immediately rushed out to the van and the dogs were in bad shape. Our precious little red boy, Quigley had died. The other two puppies were not moving at all but breathing. The four adults couldn’t walk. Pat took her garden hose and started spraying them all down in the van. As they became a bit more responsive, she dragged them out of the van and outside onto the shaded patio and continued to wet them down. The adult dogs responded fairly quickly and at that point she called me. I immediately went over to her house. When I arrived there, Quincey was up and walking but Quizmo was laying on the patio whimpering. I wet towels, wrapped up the two puppies and rushed them to the vets. Through extensive intervention over the next 24 hours, both puppies survived and appear to have no ill effects. Pat and I are both devastated, but Pat is particular devastated because she was there and is bearing this terrible quilt. The puppies came home on Thursday afternoon and are doing well. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">On Friday morning, I went over to Pat’s to help give the pups their meds. Pat seemed to be sicker and was having trouble breathing. I went back to her house about 3 PM and forced her to drink lots of fluids and eat some pudding. I left there at 5:30 PM with plans to return at 10 PM for evening meds, feeding and getting the dogs settled for the night. I decided to go back at 9:15 PM and it is a good thing I did. When I got there, Pat was semi-conscious on the couch. I roused her (with a lot of difficulty), took her temperature (and took care of puppies and adult dogs while waiting for the thermometer to beep), her temp was 102.5. At that point she vomited all over me (yuck) and almost passed out. I told her that she needed to see a doctor and she consented to me taking her to the ER (that in itself was miraculous). Quite a deal to get her in my van but it was quicker than 911 because the hospital is only 2 miles from her house. Got her there , they took her immediately; her BP was 57/30 and oxygenation was 84%, temp was up to 103, respiration was God awful. Within 25 minutes they had her on oxygen, xrays taken, two iv’s going, two sets of blood work drawn and a diagnosis of severe double pneumonia. About 11:30 PM she was becoming lucid and could respond to questions. At 12:30 AM, she told me to go take care of her dogs, so I went to her house and stayed there for the night – no sleep. On Saturday morning, I took care of her dogs and went to the hospital to see her … much to my surprise, she is in Intensive Care. Temperature is down to normal, oxygen saturation is at 95% with oxygen canula, respiration 112, BP is 84/47. She has had three different antibiotics so far … they are hitting her with a variety until the blood cultures grow. She is lucid and aware how sick she is … and not fussing about being in the hospital. She told me last night that she thinks I saved her life. I told her to remember that next time I am bitching at her about something.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">If you would like to send her a card you can send it to her house and I will take it to her: Pat Alton, 2817 Densmore, Toledo OH 43606. She is in St. Anne’s Hospital in Toledo Ohio but no flowers etc. are permitted in ICU and she isn’t up to taking phone calls. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Now, the whole “falling asleep” on Tuesday evening makes more sense … she obviously had pneumonia then and very likely low oxygenation and low BP. I hope this realization makes the loss of the puppy Quigley a little easier to deal with for her.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">For the time being (now going on 4 days), I am keeping Pat’s dogs and puppies at her house and splitting my time between the two houses (about 15 minutes apart). The twins (age 16.75) helped me by doing puppy/dog sitting for 3 hours on both Saturday and Sunday. If Pat’s hospitalization continues past Wednesday, I may have to bring her 4 girls and the 2 puppies to my house. But I will cross that bridge when I come to it.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">I am operating on adrenalin and grit … I am sure I will crash sometime but my calendar will not allow it for at least three weeks. And … I was supposed to be showing Stachie, Ouija and Lena this past weekend in Toledo … obviously that didn’t happening. I made Craig to get a chest xray to be sure he doesn’t have pneumonia also … he doesn’t. But the blood cultures that came back on Pat are a particularly nasty bacteria that can attack the heart, so I am having him call his cardiologist this morning to be sure he is on the correct antibiotic. I am going to Chicago on Friday – Sunday, so I am trying to clone myself before then since I have no clue how to keep this boat afloat when I am not here.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Sandi --- who may need to be committed in the near future.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> </SPAN></P>
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