Puppies are Like Children

The hubs and I found out what kind of parents we will be this weekend.  Our adorable, almost 10 month old puppy Cali was sick.  It started Saturday afternoon as a poopy problem which took our usually active, playful, fun loving puppy into a lathargic, quiet, lazy, sleepy puppy.  I was immediately worried, for multiple reasons.  One, of course, for Cali since we hadn't seen her sick yet.  And two, because the only vet open on the weekends was the emergency vet which charges $68 just to get in the door.

We went up to my in-laws for my FIL's birthday Saturday night and left Cali home to sleep, something we normally don't do since her Ganny loves when she comes to visit.  When we came home we walked her around outside and sat up with her until midnight trying to decide if a middle of the night vet visit was needed.  My husband once again talked me down from the ledge (I was ready to pack up the car and go) and we decided to hold off on the visit and instead check on her throughout the night.

Cali ended up being fine after a long Saturday night and her Ganny coming over to "babysit" while we did  a quick grocery shopping trip.  By Sunday afternoon she was back to her normal self, although we are monitoring her to see how she does and if we need to visit our normal vet just in case.  It's funny, we don't have kids but for the first time I felt like Cali really was one of our children.  There was lots of taking care of her over the weekend in ways that weren't always appealing, but I did learn that when we do have kids, the hubs will be talking me down from the Dr. ledge a lot I'm sure. We were lucky this time, because had he not been there, we would be looking at a vet bill easily over $100, and right now, that's not money we really need to be spending if we can help it!

Our adorable Cali!

Do you rush to the vet, or doctor, for you pets or kids at the first sign of sickness even if it means spending money you don't have to spend?  How long after you had pets or kids did it take for you to realize that you don't have to rush to the doctor at the first sign of sickness or is it something you never "outgrow?"