One Heckofa Day

My dogs were acting strange today. One of them, actually, was having trouble standing upright, and couldn’t walk this morning. She acted drunk. At first I thought she might be going into liver failure (as she has hepatitis and is 16 years old), but when I added up the pieces and her symptoms, it didn’t add up. Both dogs slept in super late, but I wrote it off on the fact it was a gloomy, dark day outside–even though it was exceptionally unusual for them to do this. They usually ask for breakfast, and one demands it, but not today.

Read moreAs I sat comforting my woozy dog, petting her and crying, I got this nagging feeling about our furnace, which I’ve had for weeks. Just last week, I asked my husband to test it, but he ignored me.

When I realized it could be carbon monoxide (though our two wall detectors didn’t go off), I turned off the heat, opened all the windows, and got a new hand-held tester we bought last year after we found out we had three dangerous gas leaks. Sure enough, when I put over the heat register, it alerted to a leak. I smelled no gas, so the likely culprit was carbon monoxide.

I put my doggies on the porch and called a gas guy. Sure enough, we had a leak. Our heat exchanger is cracked and from my reading, that is serious business. So tonight we sit in a cold house, trying to decide which furnace to buy tomorrow.

And my dog, who was most affected, popped back out of it after a half hour on the front porch. She started walking normally and asked for a walk within no time. I was wondering why she was weak and didn’t want to walk this week. Now I know why. Tonight she is her old self again.

I am so grateful that I figure this one out before my dogs succumbed to this deadly gas. We’ve been having headaches, and have been extra tired. Both dogs seemed to slow down a lot in the past two to three weeks. I wondered if it was old age at times. I should have listened to my gut instinct a week ago and demanded my husband spend 10 minutes to do a simple test, or I should have done it myself. I didn’t think I could operate that little beast of a thing, but I learned today.

Tonight, I am grateful for the simple blessings, the love of my dogs and my husband, even if we don’t have heat. We are safe.