Pine Cone Fever

There is nothing in my world that makes me happier than when Annie is happy. Annie is happy almost all of the time. In fact there are only two times when she is not happy; 1. When Bridger makes fun of her for having a “gas” problem, He says “WahooooooWeeeee” to let her know that she stinks, and her reply is to start growling and attacking his face (I think its her way of being embarrassed and saying “shut up”.) 2. Is when she is sick.
When Annie is sick it is the saddest thing. The always bouncy, tootie that she is, becomes exhausted (an Annie exaggeration) and just wants to sleep. We just went through one of these episodes. Here’s how it went; We come home from my Dads B-day party on Sunday and Annie is exhausted. (Important Note: I think she ate about 50 pine cones during this party and although I continually tried to pry them from her grip throughout the day, that dog took in a lot of pine cone! So much that I’m expecting her to poop a tree sometime this week!) So she crashes on the couch and is done! I thought she was worn out from all the playing. No she was beginning what would be a 3 day allergic reaction to what I can only assume was caused by the pine cones. I woke up at some time in the night to the sound of Annie scratching. I figured, “well she can’t sleep, she was asleep all afternoon”. I woke up again, who knows how much later, to the same sound. “Boy I sure hope she gets that itch”. I wake up a 3rd time, because Annie has gotten up on the bed, and has laid her head down on my neck between my shoulder and ear and is moaning. “What is going on” I think, and turn on the lights. I flip her over on her back and her entire body is covered in a horrible rash. It was 12:30 at night. What am I gonna do? We got up for a minute and tried to wait it out. Didn’t work. So we got in the car and went to 3 Wal-Mart’s and 1 Walgreens trying to find some Children’s Chewable Benadryl. Apparently this stuff is like a rare gem in Utah at this time of year. There was none. Defeated and exhausted we finally came home. The itching continued until I gave her a cool oatmeal bath. I learned this little secret from being a very stressed out kid who occasionally broke out in hives when my parents fought or kids at school made fun of me. Works pretty good.
We went to the Dr. (yes again) the next day and he gave me some medicine that cleared her right up. But she was lethargic all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This morning she woke up and was bouncing off the walls. We have a strict regimen that we follow and she was there, waiting for every obsessive compulsive moment of it. Example: Coffee and couch snuggling at 5:30am. Potty break 6:00am. Attack Bridger’s feet and try to engage him in play 6:00 to 7:00am. Medicine (in her mind means treat wrapped around something yucky) 7:30am.