Well... this has been quite a day. Took my Dad and wife out to our property to do a little fishing, and show Dad around a bit since he had never been out there. Got all my stuff unloaded, and set up. Got hooks in the water, and my latest bit of fishing technology turned south on us (But ended up saving my dog's life). My wife is all about top water lures for bass, but me... I like the slower (less work) use of blood bait on a corked line. Anyone who's ever used that crap knows how messy and nasty it is. Turns out... there's a better way! These things are great! You just dunk it in the jar of bait goo, and VOILA!!! No mess. Now back to my dog. My wife thought it would be fun to bring the Jack Russell along and let him roam while we fished. As you might have guessed, he didn't roam far. He waited until I was helping my Dad put an extra weight on his line and swooped in a gulped down my "delicious" baited sponge. So here we are... out in the middle of nowhere on the Saturday of a holiday weekend trying to find a vet who is still open. Luckily this was mid morning, so we found one about 15 miles away that was still there, and can handle this kind of problem. We hustled him over, and it turns out the sponge that made it easy for him to swallow also protected his stomach. They did a quick surgery and were able to get it out with no problems, and there was no trauma to his stomach. To reward him for his quick reflexes, I'm going to let him wear the cone of shame for about a month longer than required.
Holy crap that turned out to be an expensive fishing trip, glad your dog turned out okay, what's Dad saying about all this..?
The wife is out right now picking up the "thousand dollar dog"... Also getting a visit from the insurance adjuster a little later to hear what we're getting for the roof. Two storms in a row hammered us with hail, so now I have a sand pit in my driveway from all the grit that washed off. This is shaping up to be an expensive spring...