Spot and Smudge - Book One

by Robert Udulutch

  Dr. D was seated in one of the exam room chairs and she was looking at the pups’ bloodwork. She didn’t look up as she said, “Onset of initial symptoms in five days, fully symptomatic in ten.”

  Ronnie, Dan, and Aila were having the same train of thought. Ronnie spoke up first, “Her mother died three weeks ago. Have these little ones been in contact with any other dogs?”

  “Nary a one,” Mimi said, “But this past weekend the pups found the spot where their mother had died under the shed.” She put her hand on Ben’s shoulder and said, “They were there for some time, and they were filthy when they came out.”

  Dr. D said, “There is a very high probability that is the infection incident. Inhalation alone can cause contraction if the feces of the infected animal contains suitable concentration of the contamination. Parvovirus can stay active in the environment for several weeks, even months under the right conditions. If the mother was infected and shedding active virus through her bowel mov—”

  “So how do we fix her?” Ben asked, cutting her off.

  Ronnie said, “Dr. D, I appreciate you coming down. I can handle the rest of this if you want to return to your Sunday.”

  The parents added their agreement, and appreciation.

  “Thank you,” Dr. D said. She was hung over and more than happy to leave. She nodded a curt goodbye to the family and before leaving the room she shot Ronnie a nod that said, Make sure to charge for an emergency consult, and admit both of them, and charge for quarantine procedures.

  As the exam room door clicked closed Ronnie handed Smudge back to Ben and said, “Let me take another look at her brother.”

  As Ben was lifting Smudge off the table Spot stepped over Kelcy’s hands without prompting. He walked over to Ronnie and sat down in front of her, and then stared up at her.

  Ronnie paused.

  “Oh, yeah, he does that,” Kelcy said.

  Ronnie changed gloves and checked Spot over thoroughly, including his tonsils, explaining to the family that was where the virus often infected first. She said, “He’s a healthy little guy as far as I can tell, all things considered. Weight, coat, teeth, eyes, feet, muscles, all good. He tested negative but it may just not be detectable yet, and it doesn’t affect all dogs in the same way.” Ronnie rolled Spot over and rubbed his tummy. “Parvo is highly contagious,” she said, “He’s going to have to be quarantined from all other dogs for at least eight weeks. Every surface the pups have touched needs to be cleaned with bleach and water, and I mean cleaned really, really well. Their bed, dishes, your cars, toys, everything. We’re also going to have to spray any poo in the yard, and we for darn sure need to spray under the shed with a strong concentration.”

  “Smudge is going to have to stay away from Spot for eight weeks?” Ben asked “They aren’t going to like that at all.”

  Ronnie looked at Mimi for a moment and said to the kids, “I need to speak to your parents for a minute.” She received a nod of acknowledgement from Kelcy as she said, “I want you two to stay here with the pups. Keep Spot up here on the table please.”

  Dan gave Ben’s shoulder a squeeze and followed the women out of the room as Aila nodded to her daughter.

  As the door closed behind them Spot walked to the edge of the table and let out a soft yip. Smudge replied from across the room with a sickly whine from inside her box on the exam room counter. The little dog clung to the fuzzy stuffed chicken, and shivered.

  Ronnie closed the door and walked them to the lobby. There was a long pause before she spoke, “Look guys, parvo is a real bear. It’s bad news for any dog. Puppies really struggle with it, and newborns…well, they really don’t do well.”

  She saw Mimi’s face and started to mist up. “I am so sorry, Jean,” she said.

  Dan said, “Are you saying Smudge is going to die?”

  “She’s really a tiny thing, Dan,” Ronnie said, “You guys have done the most incredible job with those two little ones but I’m afraid they’re just too small for her to beat this.”

  A tear rolled down Mimi’s cheek and she said, “Oh my poor sweet little boy. He’s put everything he had into this. He loves that wee dog. I should have kept a better eye on them. I could have, I was a bloody fool.” She wasn’t holding back the tears anymore. She turned to Aila and said, “I am so sorry for getting us into this ditch.”

  Aila hugged her mom, and through her own tears said, “Mom, you did amazing things with those pups, and with our boy. Ben’s come farther in the last month than in the last two years. I was really worried about him, Mom, but you’ve given him such a wonderful gift.”

  Dan fought back a sniffle and said, “I’m the one that convinced you both we should do this. So if anyone bears the blame it’s me.” He turned to Ronnie and asked, “How long does she have?”

  Ronnie wiped her eyes and was glad she hadn’t put on any makeup yet. “Well the little thing is suffering,” she said, “She’s running a high fever, which will continue. The vomiting and diarrhea will get worse. She just can’t lose any more weight and survive for long.” Ronnie turned to Mimi and said, “You know we can’t let her continue to suffer.”

  No one spoke, and Mimi and Aila held each other for a long time. Finally Mimi kissed her daughter on the forehead and said, “I’ll tell him.”

  Chapter 36

  Jerry and Aaron were mixing up a batch of supplements and each had a death grip on opposite ends of the big powder scooper.

  “Look, dumb ass,” she said, “You’ve got to follow the fucking list or the shit won’t get done right.”

  It was a hot day and they had been at each other’s throats for a few hours. She was sweating through her t-shirt and the seat of her jeans. She finally let go of the scooper and went to take a drink from the kennel hose as Aaron went back to scooping powder into an empty five gallon pail.

  “I can’t read your fucking writing, Jerry. Look at the scribbles. Is that a nine or an eight?” Aaron asked, stabbing at the paper on the work table and leaving a powdery wet ring where his sweaty, supplement covered finger had poked.

  “Fucking great,” Jerry spat, wiping it off and smearing her scratchy writing even worse.

  She wouldn’t normally be using Aaron to do this much of the kennel upkeep but she didn’t have a choice as they were behind from the last few weeks, and she still felt like crap. Jerry had done another run down south so the kennels were full to capacity. It took her two days longer than she intended as she had to pull over every few hours to collapse into an unrestful sleep.

  Following Doug’s orders she had packed the van to overflowing and there were over two hundred puppies and dogs in the kennel. Doug had Aaron add another row of cages to the main kennel, and two rows to the side kennels. The original large cages were all the same brand but these new cages were all different sizes and types. Some had blankets and toys in them and Jerry didn’t want to ask Doug where they had come from.

  Aaron went to grab another tub of powder from the back of the van while Jerry rechecked her math. She rubbed her eyes, trying to read her own writing. Her scribbles were getting pretty shitty and she had crossed out a few numbers, wrote new ones in the margin, crossed those out, and the rest just trailed off the page.

  She stared at the label on the empty supplement container and eventually she was able to focus well enough to discover she had misread one of the numbers, causing all of her math to be wrong.

  She scribbled out the entire column and gave up. Tossing her pen down on the work table she said, “Fucking fuckbrain.”

  Aaron looked at her from the back of the van and she said, “Not you, fuckbrain.”

  Jerry rubbed her temples and got up to take another long drink from the hose.

  “Ugh, everything tastes like shit,” she said.

  To Aaron she snapped, “Just use the whole damn jug,” and then she mumbled, “Fucking close enough,” as she headed towards the van. She was going back up to the house to take a nap and steal some of Doug’s shit for her pounding head
.

  Chapter 37

  Ben was rocking back and forth in Mimi’s arms on the waiting room bench. Aila was seated next to him, rubbing his back while Dan and Ronnie talked with a tear streaked Kelcy at the reception desk.

  “Dad,” Kelcy said, sniffling, “I just don’t get it, they were doing so well.”

  “I know baby,” he said, “Believe me, if there was anything we could do for them, we would.”

  “But they’re not just little puppies, Dad,” she said.

  “I know Kels, we all love them,” he said.

  “No, that’s not what I mean,” she said, wiping her eyes, “I mean we do love them, but they’re not normal pups is what I meant.”

  Ben looked up at his sister.

  She said, “You guys have seen them, right? They are way advanced for pups their age. I know they’re small and all but they were running less than a week after they were born for Christ sakes!”

  Dan put his arm around her.

  Kelcy shrugged him off and said, “I’m not just saying this cause I’m upset Dad. Think about it, they’re different and you guys know it.”

  Ben stood up and walked over to his sister. He looked at Ronnie and said, “Yeah, she’s right. Really, she is.” He turned to Mimi and said, “Okay, so they’re tiny but their insides are not like other tiny dogs, and no dogs that smart can just be newborn puppies. If their brains and bodies are any indication, their intestines must be advanced, too.”

  Mimi wiped her eyes with a tissue and looked at Ronnie, and then everyone looked at Ronnie.

  “Well, what do you make of it?” Mimi asked.

  Ronnie thought for a moment before she spoke. She had delivered this kind of news to families a thousand times and it was never easy. She had dealt with every type of pet owner and manner of denial, anger, blame, and confusion. When there were kids involved it made delivering the news even trickier. As she formulated her response Kelcy’s words sunk in. She didn’t want to get it wrong, and this case was also very different for another reason. She considered Jean Walker a very close friend. After a decade of working side by side with her on all types of hurt and dying animals, and upset owners, she had never seen her get rattled or question the inevitable. Ronnie felt Mimi probably knew as much as she did about animals. As attached as she obviously was to these pups, Jean wouldn’t question her or prolong this situation unless she felt there was a good reason.

  “I can’t deny they are very different from other puppies their age,” Ronnie said, “And I can’t fully explain their rapid development. If we follow this logic and assume they are just little versions of much more mature puppies, well, maybe I was wrong.”

  “You were not wrong, Ronnie,” Mimi said, “You made the right call and I would have done the same.” The family turned to her and she continued, “But in this case I have to admit there are extenuating circumstances.” Mimi looked at all of them, and said, “I think we should try to treat Smudge.”

  Ben looked quickly from her, to his parents, and then to Ronnie. He said, “Really?”

  Before Ronnie could speak Mimi interrupted her. “Ben, come sit while I tell you something,” she said and patted the seat next to her, “You’re needing to understand that I am not making this decision because I love that wee puppy.”

  Ben crossed the room and sat next to his grandmother. He looked intently up at his Mimi.

  “Kels’ very astute point could not be more correct. I do so love Smudge, but I am making this decision based on the information we have, which is not much. I do think these wee pups are mature beyond our complete understanding and based on that we should make every effort to save her, but if you’re going to sign up for this you need to be fully grasping that it might not work. We have tough days ahead and she’s likely to get worse before she gets better, if she ever does. There may come a time when she’s just suffering too much to continue and you and I will need to do the right thing and make a very hard choice. You understand that, dear?”

  Ronnie started tearing up all over again, and sniffled as she nodded. She said, “I could not have said it better myself, Jean.”

  Ben thought for a moment, nodded himself, and looked at his family. He said, “I got it Meem. Let’s do our best and if we need to make a tough call then I’m way okay with that. As Papa always said, what’s for you won’t go by you.”

  Dan came over and picked his son up from the bench and gave him a big hug. He was red eyed and held the back of Ben’s head. “I love you little boy,” he said, “And I’m so very proud of you.”

  “Love you too, Dad,” Ben said, “but you’re choking me.”

  Everyone laughed, and they walked back to the exam room to see their puppies.

  Chapter 38

  Kelcy and Ben were cuddled up on Mimi’s couch, with Smudge curled up on a towel between them as Mimi came through the kitchen door carrying groceries.

  “Helloooo!” She called out, “Anyone about? I’m home with the messages.”

  Ben got up and helped her with the rest of the bags. The grandmother could read the boy’s face before he said, “She’s worse.”

  For the past two weeks they had been watching over the little sick black puppy night and day, and had taken turns with her intricate care. Ben had spent a few hours with Mimi and Ronnie mapping out the procedures, and he spent countless more hours online becoming an expert on the parvovirus.

  The pups’ regimen for the first few weeks after birth had been a logistical challenge, but the process of treating Smudge’s disease, with its fluids, charcoal, drugs, and constant monitoring, made that seem like a walk in the park.

  They had also scrubbed every inch of both houses multiple times, including all of their vehicles. They threw out most of the dogs’ bedding and toys, but Mimi insisted on saving the stuffed chicken that Smudge had adopted from Ronnie. She had soaked and hand washed the stuffed chicken over and over until it was bleached almost white, and she repeated the cleaning every few days to make sure any mess Smudge made didn’t linger on the toy.

  They put bleach and water in Papa’s pump garden sprayer and soaked everything that even looked like a potential dog dropping in both yards. Ben crawled under the shed and washed the spot where the pups’ mother had died. He was wearing taped-on plastic garbage bags and safety goggles and he looked like a toxic spill worker. He slid a tray of diluted bleach in front of him and used a hand brush and the garden hose to scrub and rinse the area several times. They also had a scrub basin with towels and separate sets of clothes and shoes setup just inside each house to ensure they didn’t cross-contaminate.

  Smudge was quarantined at Mimi’s while Spot was confined to the new house. A few times a week Ronnie stopped by to check on them and bring more meds. She would sit at the kitchen table chatting with the family over tea while she held Smudge like an infant.

  Smudge had indeed gotten worse as Mimi had predicted. Her temperature had spiked to a hundred and six a few times and she had trouble taking the fluids and the charcoal solution. The charcoal was fed to her through a tiny dropper and was meant to slowly rebuild the lining of her intestine, but it was awful stuff for her to try to keep down. Mimi tried every combination of stomach settling concoction she could find. What worked well one day failed miserably the next.

  They had to carefully capture and measure every ounce that went into and came out of Smudge to be sure they knew if she was taking in or losing fluids. When she lost fluid, which was often, they would have to add extra rounds of IV drips, which was an extreme challenge with her veins being so small. Even the natal needles seemed huge, and the constant adjusting of the drip line and the gauze tape irritated Smudge’s already sensitive skin. Everything that came out of both ends was a runny mess, and both smelled horrible.

  Her recovery had been a rollercoaster. Smudge would have a good day, taking her meds and fluids, even eating a little bit and wagging, followed by one or more bad days where she shut down and just shivered and whimpered and lay with her eyes closed, h
uddled with her stuffed albino chicken. She did sleep often and generally peacefully, which gave Ben a chance to ride his bike home and spend time with Spot and the family.

  He typically found his other black puppy following one of the Hogans around the house, reading the paper with Aila, watching Kelcy vegging with her tablet, or sitting on Dan’s lap while he worked on his laptop. They joked he was the most media-savvy dog on the South Shore. Spot was doing fine, eating and growing like a horse and showing no signs of illness, and Ben would give him detailed updates on Smudge while they wrestled in his room.

  One day while Ben was at Mimi’s with Smudge, Spot had learned to climb the stairs. Aila watched him from the kitchen, mesmerized. He had followed Kelcy to the bottom step as he typically did, but instead of turning around when she went upstairs he just sat there, staring.

  He didn’t whine, he never whined, but just looked at the hardwood steps for a long while and then hunkered down and leapt onto the first step. He paused, and looked up and down the stairs and tested the slickness of the wood with his front paws, running them along the front edge of the first step. All of the floors in the house were wide pine hardwood covered in layers of highly polished poly. Spot had already mastered the power slide as he shot around corners but the stairs were new for him as he had always been carried up and down as needed.

  Aila watched as he assessed the drop off of the first step, which to a little puppy Spot’s size must have seemed like the edge of a chasm. He then turned, and jumped up from one stair to the next without stopping. Aila watched him disappear through the balusters. She put down her book and hurried to the bottom of the stairs. She was worried he was going to get halfway up and get scared, or hurt himself, but he was looking down at her from the top. Then he came down at a full run and came to a sliding stop at the bottom next to her. Spot looked up at her, and when Aila told Dan about it later she swore the little dog had nodded. He then raced back up the stairs, taking the last few two at a time, and disappeared down the upstairs hall.