Oh my word! $350???

You just bought the vet's wife a Dyson.

That may be the cutest picture of the Ceibs ever. Thanks for keeping us posted on the health and well-being of your other babies!

Oh I know the pain of the animal stones well. Ask about special food that help dissolve stones while they are still small. The food is about the same price as the high quality brands like Iams and the like but will save you a bajillion dollars. We didn't know our dog had stones until they were too large to dissolve with medication. 1500 dollars. And a scary surgery. Where I became convinced that she might die. Not that this will happen to Ceiba except she does seem unlucky so get her the special food.

I keep contemplating pet insurance... but I keep putting it off until we're at the vet, and my cat is barfing everywhere, and I'm thinking, SHIT I FORGOT TO GET PET INSURANCE AGAIN.

Maybe I should just call some window washers, because 1. my windows are soooo dirty, and 2. I'm pretty sure some strange Mexicans hanging outside the windows would scare my cat into full cardiac arrest, and then I wouldn't have to worry about his vet bills and anti-anxiety medication costing more than the mortgage anymore.

Just kidding. I love my cat, though he loves to pee on the carpet and chew holes in all my socks.

Aw, poor Ceiba - hope she gets well soon. There's nothing worse than a pet with hind-quarter ... issues. And $350... Ouch!

You have to post a picture of this squatting technique she's developed!

Oh no. Poor Ceiba. Expense aside, I feel for anyone who gets/has a bladder infection or stone of any kind, even if it's canine. Because that shit hurts, man.

I'm also trying to picture exactly how it is that she pees, and yet I can't. I second the request for a photo, although the illustration gives a fine example on a human.

Hambone is still washing dishes after supper every night to work off his emergency vet visit debt from three months ago. I highly recommend this approach.

I think it's time for me to get myself into the animal-pee-analysis industry because I too recently shelled out $300 or so for cat pee analysis only to find out they didn't really know what the problem was. Well, can I get my $300 back then please?

And this is why I don't have pets, except for fish, right now.
Dyson is hot, indeed. The only vacuum I can use with my oldest in the room (he has severe allergen-induced asthma).

My cat, Tabitha, used to have a really bad hairball problem. She used to be like a specially trained cat homing beacon where she would be able to sniff out the absolute WORST place in the house to hurl and then proceed to cough up a hairball there.

Once we saw her go into her little pre-hairball motion, but we let her be because she was on top of a flat, empty counter that would be incredibly easy to clean. At the last second, she turned her head and horked all over the FRONT of the counter, getting it into all of the little nooks and crannies of the doors.

I swear, they do it just to torture us.

Ninja only sticks one leg out when she pees. I guess she doesn't have Ceiba's upper body strength.

One time my dog peed a lot too. It was mainly because he was a dog.

Oh my gosh that post is hilarious! As a pet owner (of the feline variety), I totally know how it is. She only jumps off the second story balcony, gets a blurry eye and refuses to poop on the WEEKENDS. Then I of course get to visit the emergency vet.

I can't believe she actually balances when she pees. You should enter her into some dog olympics.

I read "would you like to hear all about my dog's bladder functions" and thought, "why, yes, actually."

Eeek. What have I come to?

The vet bills never stop amazing me, they are always astronomical.

Aww! Ceiba's just too cute, and apparently bendy, to be mad at. Wait. $353? Nevermind.

My dog takes a dump using what my husband refers to as the "3 point stance" - her left back leg shoots up in the air like Ceiba's. Passing motorists routinely crane their necks to gawk. Mercifully, she pees like a real, normal dog.

A Dyson (or any cleaning or cooking appliance, pink or otherwise daintily colored) is NOT, I repeat, NOT an acceptable gift. That is unless cleaning or cooking is your favorite joy in the entire world. Then it is a gift. But what are the chances of that?
Go for the shoes. Or a nice purse. Or a new camera.
Those are the things gifts are made of.

Vet bills suck. A long time ago, I took a sick cat to the vet and many hundreds of dollars later, the poor cat had to be put down. I was very angry with the vet's office for charging for expensive tests when they were 90% sure the cat wasn't going to make it anyway. I made up an acronym to put in the memo line of my checks for the first of several payments to their office. It was P1OADC, or Payment #1 on a dead cat. I still don't like them.

Ceiba just doesn't want to soil her hind end.

She does need to get a job though to get you a Dyson.

OMG--that picture of the squat just gives me the most *adorable* mental image.

Hope Ceibs gets well soon:)

When I took our cat to the Emergency Vet almost two years ago, they wanted to keep her for observation. Oh, and $600, which was their estimate for the night's work. She died in the wee hours, and when I went by to get her collar, I had to pay the extra $80 of actual expenses. It wasn't more because they decided not to charge me the standard $48 for each time they took her pulse (which was something like three times while I was there and then every hour after that).

We have a yorkie, Lucy, and she pees 100 times on every walk we go on. No UTI, though, just likes to freaking annoy me when I am trying to push a stroller and manage a leash. No way to walk off the extra baby pounds when I am stopping in every yard in the neighborhood to awkwardly wait while Lucy pees in their yards. Did I mention we are up for the "neighbor of the month" award because who doesn't like a random dog peeing in your yard?!?!

$350? Pet insurance? I've never heard of such a thing.

Also, (ha!) maybe you can just let her drink cranberry juice. (ha!)

I think this post is in your top 10 Funniest Posts Ever. Seriously. The bow on the ass was freakin' hilarious.

you kill me.

(Dyson is NOT the best...just an fyi!) :-)

Doping is becoming quite a problem in the canine world these days. Especially in freakishly small rat dogs.

Apparently it stems from a form of Big Dog Envy.

Emergency vets are always more expensive that than the regular guys, so the size of the bill doesn't surprise me.

But i am using this venue to warn everybody who reads this to stay the fuck away from "Banfield Vets" (the ones that are in the huge PetSmart stores). They are insanely expensive and snotty, to boot. They charged us nearly 300 bucks for our two cat's regular checkups, and they charge out the wazoo for each individual shot! And they gave us a hard time about not declawing our cats. Grr.

Even if it's less convenient, go to a local vet who's been around your area for a long while. We paid 150 dollars for our cat's spaying and boosters, and they even cleaned out her ears while she was under for a pittance. And the stitches removal a couple of weeks later was free.

My 4 year-old speaks very fluent Spanish thanks to Dora and Diego, further validating my feelings that TV really IS good for kids!!

My first thought about the UTI was, "I'll bet she's glad to have insurance!" Oops.

I'm back. And calm! Mostly.

No, no, Amalah, I thought the post was hilarious, mostly because they DO always get sick on the weekend (although interestingly, not during major sporting events, only in the hour after the game...please discuss).

It was some of the comments that got my hackles up. Millionaires? Please. Not even. My cousin who barely graduated with a bachelor's makes more than I do.

Poor Ceiba... feel better!!

A little story, purely for amusement's sake, but maybe a little for your sake too:

I took my Lucy in for the same thing - a suspected UTI because she was peeing everywhere and her hoo-hoo was kind of, um, bloody?

I didn't even stop to think she could be having her PERIOD, being that we had her spayed just 8 months earlier and all.

Lo and behold, the bitch WAS in heat. They ended up cutting her open only to discover that a whole ovary had been left in there and they hadn't adequately spayed her at all!

Thank god there were no "encounters" with the horny boy dogs across the street!

So, that's the end of that story. Not a UTI, but a botched spay. It can really happen!

(Maybe I should have simply posted this on my own blog....sorry!)

We spent around $3,000 at the emergency vet earlier this year to have bladder stones removed from our pug mix. It would have been slightly cheaper had this occured during business hours.(this was right after spending around $300 on our beagle mix to find out she had pancreas & thyroid issues) He had some type of rare stone caused by too much protein. It was a horrible experience seeing him after surgery (and through recovery). So now every time we go for a walk, I stare at him to make sure he uses the bathroom. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm weird. We signed up for pet insurance soon after that. I hope to never have to fully use it.
Also, I LOVE my dyson. Which is kind of sad.

damnit... I wanted a dyson back when you had to smuggle them over from england. Now that James Dyson is on tv every 5 minutes and you can buy them at every corner qwick-e-mart for less than the duties would have been back in the day, it just doesn't feel so exotic anymore. Just call me "O.G. vacuum cleaner!"

I think Ceiba is cleverly trying to prevent the Dyson from coming to get her. We have the Dyson Animal, probably so named because it can suck up small animals like Ceiba effortlessly. BTW, you can always counteract the boring by vacuuming naked. It especially works well if you do it with no warning and a straight face. Maybe during an open house if you don't get any takers soon. Definately not boring.

I love my dyson. LOVE.

When I had owned my machine for about three weeks, I vacuumed over a spill (I have teenagers. They drop stuff and “don’t notice”) and sucked up water into the machine, which mixed with the dust and got all mucky. It wasn’t until I was done spraying off the filter-thingy with the hose that I thought maybe this was not a good idea. I called Dyson to ask what would happen. They said it probably wouldn’t work any more. I asked how much it would cost to replace the part. The nice lady put me on hold, came back a minute later and said “Since you have just made a significant investment in our product, we will send you a replacement free of charge.” Which they promptly did. The one I sprayed never stopped working either. I’ve had the machine three years now and it’s working wonderfully.

And speaking of cats, I found my Reno lying in the bathroom foaming at the mouth one Sunday. The emergency vets wouldn’t even take him without a $750 deposit. The overnight visit to clear his urinary tract (crystals) and treat him for complications cost me $1300. My regular vet said later….next time just call my service, I’ll meet you at the clinic. Durr.

OMG.. you made me laugh.. I'll confess that I've always been a lurker on your site and today I was compelled to come out of the shameful lurker closet and say that you're awesome!

Why do people think that veterinarians are all out to just rip people off? Comments like "well, if the test was negative, can I get my money back?" are ridiculous. Um, we're not charging you just for the heck of charging you. All of the same medical tests that your doctor can run for you, but insurance covers? are the same ones we run for your pets, but all that diagnostic equipment is expensive. We have to cover the cost of running the tests. We don't get to return used urine test strips and test tubes to the manufacturer when the tests come back normal. We send out blood or urine samples to other labs, and those labs charge us a price. Most veterinarians are not jacking up those prices just to annoy you or to pay for a Dyson for the house.
I went to school for a very long time to become a veterinarian. I work very hard to try to help when animals are sick. My student loan payments eat up over half of every one of my paychecks. I make ends meet and love my job, but I certainly don't drive a fancy car or have 5 extra bedrooms in my house. My boss has been a hardworking vet for 30 years and she deserves nice things. She lives in a modest house and drives a station wagon. She practices excellent veterinary medicine. Our clinic is not one of the most expensive in town, but it is not the cheapest by any means. We hear every day about how vets rip people off. Sure, there are probably some out there who do. But for the most part, veterinary medicine is a field that doesn't pay very well for the amount of hard work it takes. It chaps my ass when people act like we're just randomly charging whatever we want for services rendered. Like it has nothing to do with what it costs for us to operate. If you're taking your animal to a dirt cheap veterinarian, remember there is some truth to the saying "you get what you pay for."
Sorry, I don't mean to be offensive or rant-y. Just sayin'.

I feel for you. I just had a $700 vet month myself.

Thanks for the news. I was recently wondering how your rat dog's pee habits were. I can sleep well tonite.

I have a Dyson (the purple, pet hair eating one) and - to be honest - it ain't that great. Still, I pay someone to use it for me, so maybe their technique just isn't up to scratch (in which case, why am I paying her?). I dunno.

Dear Danell, if we lived in your town (I'm figuring you don't live in Portland, Ore. but do you?) I would so bring my animals to you. We've just had a bad run of luck here. Sorry, I didn't mean all vets in the universe.

Our new puppy has a thing with peeing literally 4 times and pooping twice practically EVERY time we take her out. Her vet appointment is in a week lol.

I love my vet. With four animals, I see her a lot. I don't thinking she's ripping us off, I complain about how much EVERYTHING costs.

You must get a picture of her in mid squat b/c I need to see that balancing act.
A Dyson is worth every single penny. I finally broke down and got one earlier this year and I love it with all my heart.
And you let Noah watch Dora and Diego? Aw hell, it's all over...you realize that right? All it takes is one time. Before you know it, Dora and Diego will occupy more sqaure footage of your house than you would have ever imagined.

the windows in spanish moment is so chekovian! i love it!
sorry to theatre geek out on you!
my little bonnie boo has been peeing non stop because of the meds she is on (and will be on for the rest of her life)so i've been cleaning up a lot of accidents lately- and changing diapers in the morning!
hope ceibs is better soon!

Yes- isn't pet ownership so much fun? 2 weekends in a row i have ended up there with 1)an eye infection and 2) WORMS!!! (from what will from now on be referred to as Worm Park - AKA that place we used to go.)
The puppy is 5 months old and already has doubled his purchase price with vet visits.
Good thing he's cute.
Gotta get that insurance thingy.

FIRST, please don't hate me for what I am about to tell you. SECOND, the idea that two bloggers posted about dog pee in one day without ever seeing the other's blog has disturbed me a bit.

Our dog did the same thing many moons ago, and it turned out to be a bladder stone. Which meant surgery. Which I meant I probably shouldn't have laughed at the dog eating a pack of diapers, because that's where it came from.

Ceiba hasn't munched on some Huggies, has she? Please say no.

Yes, picture! Pleeeease!

Of the Amazing Gymnastics Dog!

The Dyson? THE best appliance purchase we've ever made, hands down. That thing is a beast and a work of ingenuity. Splurge.