i saw a dog die today.

not that this is anything unusual...as unpleasant as it may be, i see a lot of people's pets die. it's part of my job. the bizarre thing about this is that i saw this dog die twice.

a woman showed up for her appointment this evening with contessa, her little cocker spaniel who had been acting very lethargic and shakey. i went out into the waiting room to get her, and saw that contessa, who was lying on the floor with her head slightly lifted, had left a large puddle of urine. i ducked in back to grab a towel to lift her up with since she was wet. when i got back to the waiting room (literally seconds later), contessa was flat out on her side. the owner appeared unalarmed, but it was apparent to me that the dog was glassy eyed and not breathing. it had literally walked into our waiting room, laid down, and died.

i scooped up the dog and brought her in to the doctor, who listened for a hearbeat, but found none. she checked for ocular reflex, and found none. she listened again with the stethoscope...and there was a faint, erratic heartbeat. and then contessa started to breathe. and then, contessa sat BOLT UPRIGHT. as amazing as this unaided return from death was, it was apparent that the dog was shocky and in poor condition. we rushed her in back to begin stabilizing her, but as we were putting in her catheter, contessa began breathing laboriously. we put her on oxygen, but almost immediately, contessa died. again. this time, for good. i can honestly say that this was the first time i ever saw a dog, or anything, for that matter, die twice. Not fade a little and then come back, but honest-to-goodness lack of breathing, lack of heartbeat, completely limp, flat-out die...and then start breathing again. the body, human or otherwise, never ceases to amaze me.

Came across this on the blogger site today: a blog devoted to poems written entirely from snippets from spam emails. Aside from being a very clever concept, the poems are actually pretty darn well put together. Apparently spam does have some modicum of worth. Who knew?

hoo-hah! i ran 5 miles this morning! i am en fuego! well, to elaborate, i didn't run the *entire* 5 miles, but i ran most of it. had to take a few little walk-breaks here and there (cold air+lungs=eek, i can't breathe!), but in any event, i am still en fuego. and i am loving my new running pants, which are very very comfy and well worth the $40 i spent on them. my long running pants are very comfy as well, but the new ones are nicer for slightly warmer weather. stop laughing. yes, i consider this slightly warmer weather. so what if it was 27 degrees this morning? it was sunny. and besides, it's warmer when you're excercising. so there.

found this link today--it has video files for all of the saturday night live "jeopardy!" skits. frickin' hilarious. 4/15/00 cracks me up every time ("i know kung fu." "for the last time, no you don't."). any whoo, enjoy :)

oooh, by the way, the sticker-maker i mentioned on february 11th is now mine, all mine! [thanks dad :)]. much sticker making will ensue.

"if women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle, when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?" --gloria steinam

*snicker*