About three months ago, I was looking into the Pet Health Care plan that my work offers. It makes sense, since vet bills can get so high, and you never know what’s going to happen to our little bundles of fur. But, it was a little bit more than I wanted to pay, and didn’t cover as much as I wanted it to, so I decided it would be wise to wait. Oh the irony. On Monday night, AJ decided to eat a tennis ball. The entire thing! I was sitting at the computer writing James, and assumed AJ was in the living room sleeping, since it was almost midnight. AJ likes to go to bed early, while I like to stay up late. When we first adopted AJ in Texas, he would always go to bed at 10. We’d be in the dining room or the living room, and AJ would jump down, and walk down the hall and hop in bed. It used to make me laugh so hard! You could hear his little tags jingle down the hall (and it was long because we had a three bedroom) and then silence before the plop.
But Monday night, AJ decided to be rebellious. He’s always chewed up his toys, and has sometimes eaten small pieces of them, but he’s never devoured an entire toy. By the time I found him, there were just a few tiny pieces left that he was trying to gulp down. I’m pretty sure that tennis fuzz and rubber could not possibly taste good, but apparently it was the thing to do. I did some googling, and realized that rubber can clog the intestines of dogs, at best, and at worst, can sit in their stomach. Everything said he needed to go to the vet immediately so they could induce vomiting. I called the emergency vet, and the vet said that if he chewed it up into small enough pieces, then he was probably fine until the morning. (It was after midnight after all…and emergency vets are soooo much more expensive than the regular ones.) So I waited until the morning, but didn’t get any sleep because if he started throwing up, I was supposed to take him in right away. I called AJ’s regular vet first thing in the morning, and they said to bring him in right away. He saw a new vet, and she was amazing! She loves poodles, which is always a plus, and AJ didn’t even try to bite her. They took some x-rays, and thankfully, AJ chewed the ball up into tiny pieces so it should all come out naturally. If he hadn’t chewed it into such small pieces, they would have had to have induced vomiting, taken a long thing down his throat and pulled pieces out, or opened him up with surgery to take the pieces out.
Eating rubber is not fun and games! So, as you can see, there are pieces of a ball throughout AJ’s insides. Thankfully, they have started to come out. I’ve never been so excited to pick up his poop before! She said that AJ seems to have a great deal of pent up energy that needs to be expressed, which is why he is patient enough to chew balls into tiny pieces. Most dogs she sees eat toys whole or in large pieces, and they have to go in to get them out. She suggested that we do agility training with him, because he is smart and has a lot of energy. How funny would it be if we trained AJ to do show dog stuff? I don’t think he is socialized enough to do it, but it does look like it could be fun. And she also recommended moving AJ to a sweet potato and pinto bean diet?? Weird, but surprisingly not weird after a few minutes of google searching. So maybe we will turn AJ more into a California dog by giving him a specialized healthy diet and taking him to intense gyms. Praise the Lord that AJ is okay! I don’t know what I would do without him out here by myself. And for a few hundred dollars, we got some awesome pictures of his insides.
Oh the life of a sailor. After a few weeks at sea, and paying for a no shave chit, James and some of his guys paid to not shave for a few weeks. Unfortunately, their no shave chits are up, and it’s back to the blade. I believe they have to shave before they pull into port, at an undisclosed date in the near future. So, here are some pics of James and his guys, scruffy and salty. James is probably the saltiest junior officer thanks to the Tarawa. 
AJ is Tennis Ball Free! Now he's just enjoying his summer camping out in his living room tent.
After finishing my thesis, I have finally had the chance to read for pleasure! For the first time since the summer of 2002, I have spent hours reading for fun. College and graduate school definitely take time away from pleasure reading, which is quite ironic. In the upcoming weeks, I will post what I’ve been reading, along with very short reviews, in case anyone is looking for something new and exciting to read. My to read list had gotten quite long after 7 years, and I am only just beginning to scratch the surface of it! Thanks to my two amazing friends, Laura and Rachel, I have been able to travel quite a bit over the last few months. In fact, I have been flying somewhere just about once a month since James left. In March, I flew to Mississippi to visit James, in April I flew to North Carolina/Virginia for the two year memorial service and for my annual ladies wine trip. Then in May I flew to Virginia Beach to attend my graduation. James and I were actually able to meet in North Carolina and fly into Norfolk together, which was such a blessing. And finally, in June and July, I flew to Alabama/Mississippi to spend some time with James in Mississippi and Florida. 
I am going to spend the next few weeks catching you up on my travels as well, because I don’t think I have really written about any of the trips in detail. It has been great to travel so much, and I couldn’t have done it without Laura and Rachel! They have graciously picked me up at 4:00 in the morning for my early flights, stayed up late as I got stuck in airports waiting to find out when I was getting in, and let AJ out while I was away. Laura even cleaned my apartment and baked me cookies! Rachel and Laura both spent hours playing with AJ and making him feel like he was loved, despite their super busy schedules. They are such amazing friends, and there is no way I could have gotten through these last few months without them!
This article appeared in the Pensacola Paper on July 12th. Link to article I found it because the captain posted it on Facebook. Yes, in this digital age, the Captain keeps a Facebook page that keeps us all updated throughout the deployment.
But Monday night, AJ decided to be rebellious. He’s always chewed up his toys, and has sometimes eaten small pieces of them, but he’s never devoured an entire toy. By the time I found him, there were just a few tiny pieces left that he was trying to gulp down. I’m pretty sure that tennis fuzz and rubber could not possibly taste good, but apparently it was the thing to do. I did some googling, and realized that rubber can clog the intestines of dogs, at best, and at worst, can sit in their stomach. Everything said he needed to go to the vet immediately so they could induce vomiting. I called the emergency vet, and the vet said that if he chewed it up into small enough pieces, then he was probably fine until the morning. (It was after midnight after all…and emergency vets are soooo much more expensive than the regular ones.) So I waited until the morning, but didn’t get any sleep because if he started throwing up, I was supposed to take him in right away. I called AJ’s regular vet first thing in the morning, and they said to bring him in right away. He saw a new vet, and she was amazing! She loves poodles, which is always a plus, and AJ didn’t even try to bite her. They took some x-rays, and thankfully, AJ chewed the ball up into tiny pieces so it should all come out naturally. If he hadn’t chewed it into such small pieces, they would have had to have induced vomiting, taken a long thing down his throat and pulled pieces out, or opened him up with surgery to take the pieces out. 
Eating rubber is not fun and games! So, as you can see, there are pieces of a ball throughout AJ’s insides. Thankfully, they have started to come out. I’ve never been so excited to pick up his poop before! She said that AJ seems to have a great deal of pent up energy that needs to be expressed, which is why he is patient enough to chew balls into tiny pieces. Most dogs she sees eat toys whole or in large pieces, and they have to go in to get them out. She suggested that we do agility training with him, because he is smart and has a lot of energy. How funny would it be if we trained AJ to do show dog stuff? I don’t think he is socialized enough to do it, but it does look like it could be fun. And she also recommended moving AJ to a sweet potato and pinto bean diet?? Weird, but surprisingly not weird after a few minutes of google searching. So maybe we will turn AJ more into a California dog by giving him a specialized healthy diet and taking him to intense gyms. Praise the Lord that AJ is okay! I don’t know what I would do without him out here by myself. And for a few hundred dollars, we got some awesome pictures of his insides.
