Trying times

We've hit a rough patch with the pugs.  At least one of them (we're not sure who) is sick with something...we don't know what.  We've had to clean up WAY more stuff (diarrhea or vomit...we can't always tell) in the past few days than anyone should have to do in a year.  And believe me, that's bad.

It started at around 4:30 on Friday morning when I got up to pee.  I heard some weird noise and figured out it was the black pug snorting loudly, which is unusual in the middle of the night.  She only snorts when anxious or overheated.  I started down the stairs to see what was going on and the smell hit me.  I went back up to get R and we both ventured down to what can only be described as a wall of stench.  R opened the crate the dogs share and the black pug ran out and headed towards the back door (I wouldn't have opened the crate, but it was early and he was tired).  R followed with the fawn pug and we ushered both of them out the back door.  They were clearly covered with whatever was in the crate, and EVERYTHING stunk.

We began hosing down the dogs and the crate.  R was gagging down to his toes.  I was cautioning him not to awaken the neighbors with his retching.  The dogs were wandering around the yard and the mosquitoes were zeroing in on my bare legs and arms.  It was ridiculous.  When we got everything clean enough to bring inside, we went in to try and sleep a little more.  We left the black pug outside because it was still relatively cool and she didn't even bark.  That told us she was really sick.

When it was time to go to work, R suggested we just barricade the dogs in the kitchen so they didn't have to lay in it if one of them got sick.  It was a good idea, except that when I came home from lunch I found one of them had got sick, one of them had pooped, and one of them had walked through it.  It was as bad as it gets.  I spent my lunch hour gagging and scrubbing the kitchen floor, hosing off the dogs, and then when I had everything cleaned up I had to do it again when one of them got sick on the kitchen floor.

We didn't have any more incidents the rest of Friday or Saturday.  This morning I got up at 6:00 to take a shower and when I walked down the stairs I could smell it again.  Dang!  More hosing, more scrubbing, more bathing and a trip to the pet store for a deodorizing pet spray because we couldn't get the smell out of the dogs' hair.

We've since learned to separate the pugs in the barricaded kitchen so we can tell who is doing what.  This afternoon the black pug had another accident but we really think the fawn pug also did something this morning.  We even wondered aloud if maybe we have some of the deadly dog food from China that made both dogs sick. We switched foods just in case.

We're all exhausted and our house smells like a sewage treatment plant (the "before" tank).  But we feel so bad for our little pugs because they clearly don't feel well.  We're worried that if we lose the black pug we'll have to put the fawn pug down because he relies on her and won't sleep by himself.  He just cries without her. I know that's a dark place to go but we're both tired and irrational right now.

Tonight they're resting and quiet.  We'll see how the night goes, but I don't think we'll do the crate again unless they just won't sleep.  I'm a walking, talking bundle of aches and pains, over-glazed with fatigue.  Please let it be a good night.