What a horrible night and morning. Tolkien got up many times during the night, and come going in and out of the house. That's not entirely abnormal, so I figured he was just having trouble going to the bathroom in the rain. However, at about four in the morning, I heard him whine as he stood up. He went out, and stayed out the rest of the night. I got up this morning a little later than usual as a result of taking care of Tolkien's difficulties. I went out to feed him about seven, and he was standing outside panting. That was weird. I reached down to pet his neck, and he yelped. He didn't eat, didn't have any water, and just followed me around everywhere. He would stand in front of me and just give off a vibe of 'please, help me.' I gave him a bath, and managed to get him to lie down. That lasted for five minutes. Then he was up standing and panting, again. I thought that maybe he was having issues with his joints, so I gave him some Ascriptin. He finally ate it, although he yelped when he first tried to take it, well he was trying to take the cheese that it was wrapped in.

Finally, I called the vet. They were closing in a little over an hour, and it was going to take at least a half hour to get there. The vet was very good, and very kind to him. I was sure this was going to be a one-way trip. I was envisioning tumors, cancer, whatever. Well, she checked him out very thoroughly, and concluded that without x-rays, her best guess was that he had strained the muscles in his neck. Frankly, I doubt that is hard for him to do given the fact that he is about 160 pounds, and his head is probably 20 of them. She gave him a shot of morphine, and gave me some pain killers to give him over the next few days. If he isn't better on Monday, she wants to do the x-rays. Right now he is lying on the floor next to me and sounds like a steam engine. I wish he could get some sleep.

Struggling with pets for the past couple of years...