Zillah, our new puppy, has been quite the handful over the past week.  And I don’t mean in the typical “new puppy is a handful” way either…

Last Wednesday, although we felt like we should take the time to grieve from our loss of Tilly, Anne and I decided that we should get a new puppy.  I mean, we had just gone through puppy-training with Zoe, so we were already set up for puppies in the house.  Plus, we love dogs.

So, Anne found her online, and she and I drove to Prosser (south of Yakima) to pick up Zillah (well, her name at the time was Jade).  She was part of a rescue from a shelter, and is allegedly a black lab / aussie mix, although she looks almost exactly like Zoe (at least, what Zoe looked like a couple of weeks ago when she was a wee pup…).

Zillah quickly fit in with the family, tearing around the kitchen wrestling with Zoe, tolerating hugs and kisses from Alex and Leah, and basically looking quite cute.  Her name comes from both the town that we passed through on our way to get her, as well as the ancient Hebrew name for “shadow“.

Then, on Saturday morning, after a trip to Wallingford Park to watch Alex play soccer and meet Emily, Grandma Helen, and The Cousins, Anne noticed that Zillah wasn’t acting as energetic as usual.  Once we noticed that she was not eating or drinking, and that she seemed to have the runs pretty bad, Anne took her over to the animal hospital.

After a LONG wait in the VERY same room that Anne and I were in to say goodbye to Tilly (too cruel!), the doctors reported that the initial testing showed that Zillah might have parvo, but more tests were necessary.  After the second round of blood tests, it was confirmed - Zillah was infected with parvovirus.  She was admitted to the hospital and went directly onto an IV in isolation.

Back at home, Anne and I did some research on parvo, and became more and more worried as we realized the seriousness of the situation.  Our fears were confirmed by a phone call from the animal rescue, letting us know that Zillah’s littermate also had parvo, and was pretty bad off.

Sunday was a very long day, waiting for news about Zillah.  Unfortunately, when that news came, it was not positive.  Zillah was not eating or drinking at all, and was having regular bouts of diarrhea and vomiting.  It did not look good.  Anne and I started to brace ourselves to lose our second dog in as many weeks.  Plus, we had to get ready to tell the kids…

On Monday, Anne spent a bunch of time with Zillah at the hospital, giving her love and attention, and trying to get her to eat something.  This seems to have worked, since Zillah ate a very little bit of the chicken and rice that Anne had brought.  I visited Zillah on my way home from work, and she although she didn’t eat anything for me, she seemed a little more energetic.

Tuesday, Anne and I both went over around lunchtime to visit, and found a much improved dog.  She ate some food for us, and drank some water out of her bowl.  The doctor decided that as long as she was attempting to eat (and had not vomited for a while) that he would let us bring her home and try to get her to continue to eat.  That night, I sat in the kitchen with her, trying all sorts of food to get her interested, until I finally had some luck getting her to eat some tuna from the can.  Anne and I gave her her medicine, and went to bed (no problem for Zillah, since all she had been doing recently was sleeping).

Wednesday again showed improvement.  Anne found a particular flavor of baby food that Zillah liked, and got her to eat a couple of small meals.  I bought some more baby food on the way home, and found a much happier dog there (and a much happier Anne and kids).

Thursday we finally felt that she turned the corner.  More eating, much more energy, and she looked like she was gaining some of her weight back.  Today - she seems much the same as she did a week ago - happy and healthy.

So, in a week we have gone to death’s door and back with this little dog.  Although it’s only been 7 days, it feels like it has been much longer.  It’s hard to believe that all this stress and emotion was only one week.  Now, it’s back to crate-training, with a couple of more gray hairs, and about $2500 less in the bank.  But, it’s worth it — this is a special dog, and this whole experience has just brought us all closer together.

But, it sure was quite the adventure…

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