Overcome with fear

We’ve always suspected Duchess was a drama queen.
A few examples: When our people leave she does this horrible death howl for at least 10 minutes. When she gets taken to the doggie cleaners, she shakes like a leaf. And when she has to stay inside when it’s our feeding time she retaliates by going through the trashcan.
But the stunt she pulled Saturday topped them all.
The little white fluffy thing has been puny lately and our people and the vets are working on a diagnosis and cure. Part of the trial cure is special dog food and prednisone.
Cheryl had to make a special trip to the special vet in another county to pick up said dog food and drugs.
Thinking it would be a positive experience for Duchess to go in and come right back out, Cheryl took her inside the building with her to retrieve the items.
With Duchess cradled in her arms, Cheryl walked through the door.
Duchess panicked. Gave a yelp. And then passed out. She went limp in Cheryl’s arms. She fainted!
The nice vet helpers grabbed Duchess across the counter and rushed her back to the doggie ER where they immediately hooked her up to oxygen and checked her vitals.
Our guess is Duchess thought if she blacked out the rest of the world would too, since it revolves around her, and no one would be conscious enough to know she was in the vet’s office.
It backfired on her.
She ended up staying in a place she didn’t want to be at longer then she had to be.
After pumping her little brain with enough oxygen, Duchess came to, realized where she was and got better really quick.
Meanwhile, Cheryl is out in the lobby thinking the worst. To keep her mind from going to bad places, Cheryl struck up a conversation with some strangers. They talked about the weather, the war, Pax Hill Road in Burke County and a road with the same name but different spelling in Caldwell County – anything to keep their mind off what was happening to their doggies in the back.
After about 20 minutes, the vet called Cheryl in and gave her the skinny on Duchess. She did indeed faint because of lack of oxygen to her brain. He could take x-rays and run tests to find out why or prescribe her prednisone, which was why they were there in the first place. To keep from traumatizing the dog and the pocketbook even more, Cheryl decided to take Duchess home and watch her.
The vet’s instructions were to keep her activity level down and bring her back if she had any more episodes.
Once Duchess was out of the vet’s office, she made a miraculous recovery.
We haven’t worked up the nerve to tell her that in two weeks she’ll have to go back for more blood test.
Maybe the doggie doc can prescribe some doggie prozac. If not, we might all be needing some happy pills.