Home Again and the Story of Emma

I have to tell the story of poor Emma - I came home from work on the Tuesday before I was supposed to leave for Halifax to find her in obvious pain. She just wanted to sit - little walking and absolutely no jumping. She would also not climb the stairs. Every time that she put all of her weight on her back legs, she would cry!! Jamie rushed home from the ranch and we gave Emma the once over - we were actually on our way to the car to take her to the Emergency Vet Clinic when she seemed to perk up a little. We finally decided that since we were very sure that there was nothing going on in her belly (I would have immediately taken her to the Emergency Clinic and happily paid the hundreds of dollars that they would have ended up charging me) we would wait and take her to our own vet the following day after work. By this time we were pretty convinced that the problem was in her hips.

The following morning, she seemed to be a little worse and I could not bear to leave the house with her sad puppy eyes looking at me, so I scooped her up and took her to the vet before I want to work. Dr. Wilson examined her quite thoroughly. He agreed that she was in obvious pain, however, he was not able to find the source of the pain. He gave me some pain medication to give her and told me that she should be showing some signs of feeling at least a little better by the time I got home from work. NOT!!!!!!! I arrived home to find a dog who refused to stand up - she would only sit, turn herself around in circles and try to bite her back side. Back to the vet we went.

When Dr. Wilson came into the room this time, I left Emma on the floor so that he could see how she was behaving and she certainly put on a show for him. She also had a small pee on the floor. Dr. Wilson immediately recognized that the urine did not look right and she sucked some up for testing - full of blood and bacteria. Emma had a urinary tract infection. Those of us who have had urinary tract infections can attest to how painful they can be - imagine how long this had been going on for Emma because dogs endure a tremendous amount of pain before they let us know that they are in pain.

By the time I left for Halifax on Sunday, Emma was showing definite signs of feeling better - she was climbing the stairs, but she still spent most of her time sitting and she still wouldn't jump on anything. When I picked her up from the dog sitter (they actually don't usually want to come home from there) she was Emma again - the tail is wagging, she is walking, standing, jumping and just generally behaving like my Emma again.

What a relief!! I don't even want to imagine what the Emergency Clinic would have put her through - blood work, x-rays and who knows what else and I'm mot convinced that they would have come up with the correct diagnosis. While the trips to our vet weren't inexpensive, at least she wasn't put through any unnecessary procedures and once she actually gave him a solid clue, she was on the road to recovery!!

Crime Stoppers International Training Conference

I am in Halifax this week at the annual Crime Stoppers International Training Conference. 


I left London on Sunday morning at 11:30 and took the train to Toronto. Even though the train was only about 10 minutes late leaving London, somehow it managed to be 40 minutes late arriving in Toronto, leaving me little time to get to Billy Bishop Airport and catch my flight. I arrived at the airport with only 5 minutes until the scheduled departure time for my flight. Somehow I got lucky. The luggage had all been loaded and a special trip was required to get my suitcase on the plane, however, the plane had not started boarding. 

I flew Porter Airlines. They allow you 2 pieces of checked luggage (no charge), they feed you!!!!, they use real glass for the drinks (I understand that if they are serving a full meal, it is served on china), the seats are leather and there is actually some legroom!!


The Halifax airport is almost an hour outside of the city. Volunteers from the local Crime Stoppers program drove us into town - as a car was filled, off we would go.

Downtown Halifax is very interesting - you can get almost anywhere downtown by means of indoor "pedways". The four of us from London are staying at the Halifax Delta which is connected by pedway to the World trade and Conference centre where the programs are being held.


So far, the conference has been quite interesting and informative. It has also been exhausting!! One more day and then it's time to try the trip back home.