A little excitement with a happy ending

Tonight's location:  Boon docking Magnolia Beach Texas

Today started off quite normal.  We sat around and had coffee and did a bunch of household chores.  We watched a bunch of ships come and go, but I won't bore you with that.  After lunch Charlie and I went for a walk down to the crabbing dock.  On the way there we saw the neatest little golf cart/car.  I have never come across one like this so I stopped them and asked to take a picture.  No problem they said.

We continued on and when we got to the crabbing bridge, I sat down on a bench to text Sue to let her know we were heading back.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Charlie grab something off the ground.  It was about the size of a finger and as he was swallowing it I noticed it had a piece of fishing line attached.  I grabbed for the line but missed the first time and gulp, down the hatch it went.  I grabbed the line and gave a gentle but firm tug.  Out of his mouth came a piece of bacon all wrapped up but the line was stuck.  I tugged a couple more times and it stayed put way down in Charlies throat.  Every time I tugged he gagged so I immediately thought it must have a hook on it and now it is stuck in his throat.  As long as I didn't tug, Charlie didn't seem to be bothered at all by it.  There was about a foot of line still in my hand so I tied it to his collar so he wouldn't swallow the rest of it an headed for home.  We were about a mile from the Ponderosa so it took a while to walk there.  All the time I am seeing the dollar signs going by because it is a Sunday and surgery costs and X rays etc etc.  Our friends, Cam and Jill, had one of their small dogs get a bone wedged in its throat and that cost them around 700 bucks.  Jill got Cam to drill a hole in the bone and she wore it around her neck.  She bragged that it was a 700 dollar necklace, so I am thinking maybe we will get an expensive fish hook necklace made when this is over.  When I got home Sue looked and agreed that we had to take him to the vet.

fishing line tied to his collar.  Other end down his throat

Off we went to Hillcrest Animal Hospital Emergency which offers weekend emergency services.  Charlie didn't mind a bit and never once complained on the way in.  He was actually quite happy to see Dr. Beck and his assistants.

Because we were the only ones there, we were taken in right away and everyone went quickly to work to figure out what to do.  Dianne surveyed the situation and did up the paper work, while Dr Beck had a look at Charlie.

X rays were ordered and the Vet tech Gensie took 3 of them starting at the neck and working down to his tail.  Within 5 minutes Dr. Beck came back with a piece of fishing line in his hand and said take Charlie home and relax.  The fishing line was a crab line and they don't use hooks for crabbing.  They just tie a big wrapped up piece of bacon to the line and the crab grabs it and they pull him out.  The loop at the end must have made it feel hard to pull when I tugged on it, and because I didn't want to cause any more damage than needed, I didn't pull hard enough.  A bigger tug would have saved us a lot of time and money.  Oh well, Susan had mentioned she wanted to go to Victoria shopping today, so here we are in Victoria.  May as well shop.  Or did we just spend our shopping money.

Charlie came bouncing out and out we went to settle up and go home.  Now the bill was a lot for the half hour we were there, but remember this was a Sunday and they have an emergency fee when you walk in the door.  They have to call in a tech to do the X rays so that costs extra, and while we were at it we got the southern flu shot for Charlie that our vet back home had recommended us to get.  So we gladly paid the bill.

Dr. Beck, Dianne and Gensie were so good with Charlie. Thanks so much for your work.  Gensie even brought her cute twin girls to work with her and they were playing in a play pen while mom looked after Charlie. Thanks everyone.  If you ever need veterinarian services in Victoria Texas, Hillcrest Animal Hospital is the place to go.

Gensie and Charlie

Gensie and Dianne

After a quick stop at the grocery store we headed back to the Ponderosa.  The temp outside was a bit warm but hey, that's what we came for.

After supper we watched the episode of Survivor that we missed last week using Sues projector again on the side of the Ponderosa.  Its nice to sit out side and watch TV. 

The moon was pretty tonight and the silhouette of the motor home looked kind of spooky.

Here is the view from our window again tonight, and guess what it is???  A ship!!!!

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