Babysitting Beethoven

I'm feeling very tired.

Monday night, I took Beethoven to the 24-hour vet clinic in Mong Kok at one in the morning. I didn't get much sleep that night.

Yesterday before lunch, I was able to bring Beethoven home. He hadn't recovered fully but he seemed chirpier than the night before. The saline drip had definitely helped him. Unfortunately, he was still weak and refused to eat or drink. Last night, I watched him carefully, considering every minute whether to take him back to the hospital. His breathing was heavy and a little quick. I didn't get much sleep last night either.

Around midday today, I recorded Beethoven's breathing at home and showed the video to our friendly vet in Sai Kung. He indicated that the laboured breathing was not a good sign, and we rushed home to take Beethoven back to the hospital.

He's there now. We spent a few hours with him there after the drip had been reattached, and watched him perk up quite a bit as his breathing slowly improved. Unfortunately, he's not out of the woods yet. We need to find out why he's sick before it kills him. Tonight, the hospital will be doing an ultrasound on his lower body to check his organs. They'll call me to tell me whether they find anything. I'm hoping that they find something that can be fixed. That'd be nice, but we have to wait and see.

To complicate things, I begin full-day rehearsals tomorrow morning for the upcoming bi-lingual play 「中國皇后號」 performed by the H.K.R.E.P. Since my wife and I won't be home during the day for the rest of the week, we've decided that Beethoven is going to stay on a drip in the hospital to keep him stable until we know more about his condition, or until he begins to eat again.

But his condition worries me a lot. When dogs get sick, they can leave us very very quickly. I'll be visiting Beethoven at the hospital tomorrow morning before I head off to rehearsals in Sheung Wan. Hopefully, he'll look better. We can only hope...