That Would be a Great Trick

Our dog, Indy, has learned to come and alert us to the fact that he is going to be sick (vomit) so we can let him outside quickly.

Our last dog, Shasta, didn't need to learn this trick because she had an early warning sign that sounded like a camel coughing up an elephant and lasted for about 15 seconds before her present actually arrived.

But Indy is a silent gift giver, so his attempts to alert us to the onslaught are much appreciated. And I think he really, really does not want to be sick in the house. I think he feels guilty and sad when he does that, like he is creating more work for us and would like to avoid that if at all possible. You can see it on his face if he doesn't make it outside. He appears embarrassed and apologetic, even though it is not his fault - although he could have not eaten the rubber ball, piece of bed sheet, and OMG what is that? that caused him to vomit in the first place.

So the other night when I was getting the boys ready for bed, I was distracted and didn't notice the early warning signs. Luke's mattress was on the floor of Jack's room for a sleepover when Indy came in. Luke was delighted when Indy hopped onto his mattress, expecting Indy to snuggle for awhile. Luke quickly became mortified when Indy barfed on his blankets. Luke burst into tears. I'm lucky that's all he did. Had it been me at that age (and right up until I had kids) I would have followed up Indy's deposit with one of my own.

Luke was devastated. How could Indy do that? What did Luke ever do to Indy to deserve that kind of treatment? To Luke it was as if Indy saved up his stomach contents, sought Luke out and purposely puked on his blankets.

I said to Luke, "He didn't do it on purpose or to hurt your feelings. He was trying to get our attention to tell us he needed to be sick, but we weren't fast enough. You know how sometimes you are going to be sick and you try to make it to the toilet but you don't and you get sick on the floor instead?"

"But my bed is nowhere near the toilet," he said.

And we started laughing, the image of a dog trying to get sick in the toilet instead of outside fresh in our minds as we went on an Indy present hunt through the house and loaded Luke's blankets into the washing machine.