Hazelnut Reflections

a little too much excitement for my taste (warning--litterbox story involved)

I can write about it now. I was almost inarticulate while this was all going on.

You see, the Wilbur of the previous post gave me a good scare over the last 28 hours. Although I am usually quite careful about stray pieces of yarn, yesterday afternoon Wilbur got a hold of a foot long piece of Lion Brand baby soft (melon) which had been snipped from the aforementioned Baby Albert jacket (only one sleeve to go, btw). He swallowed the whole thing (in fact, he swallowed it while running away from my desperate attempts to get it out of his mouth). If I hadn't been so anxious, it would have been funny, seeing him with this orange colored pasta string hanging out of his mouth while he ran up the stairs, down the stairs, under the bed. I called the vet. I plopped Wilbur into the carrier (an undertaking which "plopped into the carrier" really does not fully describe) and drove to the vet, hitting, of course, every single stoplight. (He had managed to swallow successfully after making the requisite hairball noises). At our vet (he peed in the carrier, of course), she could see the yarn in his throat, but when she tried to remove it, he swallowed it further. So she sent us off, again hitting every stoplight, to the local animal hospital, (too big and too noisy but the medical care was ok), where I was given an estimate for an endoscopy. Of course the vet would not give me his personal recommendation. Of course I couldn't reach the DH on his cell phone (although I did eventually reach him through the ancient method of telephoning the office on a land line). Fearing bowel obstruction, we agreed to the endoscopy. I left Wilbur and went home and pretended not to fret. This is why there are no buttonholes on the upper left front of the Baby Albert jacket. (I am not redoing it. It is not noticeable. )

Finally I received a call from the vet who said the yarn had moved out of the stomach and into the intestines, therefore a) they weren't going to charge for the endoscopy (the good news) and b) now we'd have to wait for 72 hours to see if it would pass or if "profuse vomiting" would ensue (the bad news). There was some excessive description of what could happen if not caught in time.

Needless to say, post-anesthesia, Wilbur was grumpy. I was on pins and needles, waiting to hear the dreaded "urk" noises. I checked litter box frequently. No sign of melon colored sportweight yarn.

I was a basketcase all day today. Wilbur hid most of the day (I would have hid from me too). There was obsessive knitting and checking of litterboxes (not at the same time). There was immersion in daytime TV (that's a lot of Law and Order) to try not to think about it. Worst of all, there was no chocolate in the house.

Finally, this evening, I rechecked the previous day's litter. I was getting nervous that, with it not having passed for 24 hours, that we were headed for emergency surgery. This time I looked a little closer, and sure enough, I spotted something that had in a previous life been a wad of Lion Brand melon-colored sportweight acrylic yarn. (I don't think LB's going to want this as a testimonial however--goes right through!) Wilbur had probably passed it yesterday evening.

He's fine. I'll be fine tomorrow.

posted by Emily @ 9:19 PM