In life, everyone has their emergencies; some more serious than others. For example, I cannot find any bocchini at the Northern or the Co-Op. What are the chances, right? Alas, my quinoa salad will have to do without. I’ll survive.

Other emergencies? The life-threatening kind? Hmm…thankfully they don’t come around as often; when they do come around, its a good reality check. You know, emergencies that affect something close to your heart.

I’m sure you have an idea where this is leading…with such an awesome picture of my girl here, how could you not?

Basically, it was two days before I was due to fly to Iqaluit for orientation meetings and I was out enjoying the warm weather with Scarlett and Gryphon. I know that these monkeys don’t feel grass under their paws nearly enough, and I was trying to take advantage of those last moments in the south. Anyway, as Scarlett did her…business…I noticed a glint.

NB: I know it’s nasty to talk about poop if you’re not a pet owner or a parent, but this post is all about Scarlett and her digestive system.

Back to the glint…well, as it turns out, it was my purple and silver necklace. Went right through her. She’s always had some weird fetish for jewelry, but this took it to the next level. Since I was traveling at the time, I had everything stored in a ziploc bag in my suitcase – ripe for the picking! After finding the mess of mismatched earrings and bracelets, I decided a precautionary trip to the vet.

The Bank Street Animal Hospital in Ottawa is absolutely amazing; for anyone looking for someone, you should check them out. Dr. Kamran did a quick x-ray then came back with my very healthy looking pup. He, on the other hand, looked a bit green. When he had me check out the screen I saw a few earrings and beads in her intestines and a whole mass of tangled jewelry in her stomach. He then broke the news that a relatively high risk surgery needed to happen within the next few hours.

…a bit more serious than the lack of bocchini at the local shop, right?

Anyway, all I can say is, ‘thank goodness for modern science’. A surgeon came in and, within an hour and a half of me walking in, she was under general anesthesia. And this is what they found…

Can you imagine that she had all of this in her little chiweenie gut?

Fortunately, miraculously, nothing had punctured her stomach lining. Had that happened, who knows what this blog entry would entail!

These are her crazy stitches two days after her surgery.

Scarlett is notorious or not wanting anyone to poke, prod, pull, or pick at her – who could blame her? And here the closest vet is almost a 2 hour flight away. Classic quotes, however, stick around for a reason: Necessity is the mother of all invention. In the north many things are necessary. And many things are not readily available. It seems everyone must become a ‘jack of all trades’; I can’t say what my trades may be, but I can say that local nurses often moonlight as a vet techs! This afternoon two of them took time out of their weekends to remove my rascal’s stitches. And this is what she looks like now…

That's one nasty looking scar!

Guess what…my jewelry will no longer be housed in a plastic ziploc bag. And pet insurance rocks bee-otch!