It never does end.

Bad news: We are out $108.50

Good news: Mango does not have lyme disease.

She's always been a drama queen, as Zach puts it; getting injured in her puppy way, and then whining about it for days on end like Scarlett O'Hara. In the beginning we would hurry to call the vet, or even rush her there because we thought she must have broken a bone or something. After a few false alarms we began to realize it was just Mango's nature to over-dramatize the muscle soreness and soft tissue strains that apparently are common to puppies. And this time around was no different, but after about four or five days or her complaints, we started thinking that maybe Mango really is hurt.

Today I was at an all-day staff meeting at work, so when I Jacob and I got home the dogs has been alone for most of the day. I carried several loads of God-knows-what into the house, and then on my last trip, the sleeping body of my son. I layed him down on the couch, and since a nap is no longer a daily occurrence, I had big plans. I was going to get everything organized, including the beginning steps to an actual dinner (a meal that often just consists of whatever snacks can be procured from the cluttered cabinet, which is in a perpetual state of fullness, yet always seems to be void of 'anything good to eat'), and then if there was any time left over, I - in a glorious moment of foresight - had strategically placed Jacob in a way that my physical person could fit nicely in between him and the back of the couch, comfortably enough that maybe, perhaps, I could fall asleep myself...

My next move was to slide open the gate that keeps the dogs in the 'dining room', aka the dog room while we are away from the house. Mango didn't even budge right away, but when she did, it was in a pained, contorted sort of fashion. After I ran to the bathroom for a kleenex to wipe her grayish eye goop, I actually laid on the un-vacuumed rug and cuddled the poor thing. She was shaking and her ears were pressed up against her head. She's been yelping each time we touch her. When Ginger comes near, Mango goes running in the other direction. It's usually the opposite; Mango is the instigator and Ginger whimpers away in submission.

After a few minutes I decided this was bad enough and we needed to do something. I called Zach at work to consult; we hung up with the agreement that he would call his step-mother who's our all-purpose animal expert in situations like this, and that I would call the vet's office, which we know is closed on Tuesdays. I left a message at the vet's, hoping that maybe they'd be checking voice mail in between surgeries, and Zach got through to Chris. She said it could be lyme disease and we should get to a vet asap. Remembering our last trip to the emergency vet clinic (Ginger coughing up blood due to heartworm treatment, the stroller being run over in the driveway at 3am, the $300 dollar bill, for what I can't even remember), I opted to call the vet a mile down the road to see if there was some small chance that they could see a new patient on a moment's notice. They said as long as I could get there right away they could take us.

Zach met me at the vet's and after I finished filling out the paperwork they took us in an examination room. The doctor examined Mango and agreed that she needed a lyme disease test right away. She was taken to the back room, had blood drawn, returned to us, and 8-10 minutes later we learned it was not lyme disease. Yet it remains a mystery. They gave her a pain pill and said one possibility is panosteitis (no idea if I'm spelling that right), something we'll learn about if it comes to that. But here's the clincher: We pay a sum each month for the dogs' 'wellness plans' at our vet's, think of it as health insurace for dogs. This ensures us free office visits (which today accounts for $55 of the bill) and would have also covered the lyme disease test (tack on another $52 to the bill). So all that could have been free at our place, and the only thing we would have paid for is the pain pill. Do the math - $1.50.

So for now we're going to play it by ear. We'll see where we're at in the morning. Our regular vet's office will hopefully be calling back in the morning and I trust that they'll take care of our girl. For now we're just trying to be as gentle as we can with her and and I'm enjoying the fact that she's finally calmed down enough that I can give her some love without a face full of slobber. Perhaps this will be a turning point for she and I, a kind of bonding experience where I'm needed in a way and things finally smooth out between the two of us.