Best (and Worst) Week Ever

The last 12 days have been the most emotional, stressful days of my life.

It all started because of Vegas. I'm not going to give a play-by-play because I think Beckie plans to post an extensive blog regarding our trip. No need for everyone to read the same thing twice. We went a a different bar every night and were pretty darn lazy during the days. On Wednesday we saw 'American Storm' (the male-review group from VH1's show StripSearch) at this rinky-dink bar at the Riviera. It was very random and ironic since we had commented about this when we saw a sign for 'Thunder From Down Under' sign at the airport. Anyway, it was funny. On Thursday we went to the ghostbar at The Palms. That place is really quite annoying at first. Since it is one of the hot spots for famous people, everybody who stays there thinks they are hot shit. The lines for the bars are ridiculous and there is no organization at all to get people in (even when you've paid $25 in advance to not wait). I would never stay at The Palms and don't think I'll go there my next visit. But aside from all that, we had a good time. The drinks were reasonably priced (for Vegas) and the music was good even though dancing was prohibited. The ghostbar is a lounge, if you want to dance you should go the night club, Rain... That's what the sign said as you walked in. I still wasn't sure why the played rap/dance music if they didn't want people to dance...??? In any case, we met a few people and got a good laugh out of the girl wearing leather underwear. We saw this interesting group of people - I'm guessing they were a band and their girlfriends, but they had spiky hair and rocker type clothes. And literally, one girl was wearing leather underwear as her outfit (with a long fur coat over it to stay warm - HA). We saw them going into the lounge and we saw they getting kicked out :-) One of the girlfriends go too drunk and couldn't even walk...how cool were they, eh? Friday was St. Patrick's Day. Marc and I watched basketball games (MSU really sucked it up and lost their first round game) and Beckie and Jenn gambled a little. We had dinner at a 50's diner in our casino then decided to head to The Paris since Marc had to get money from a friend. We ended up at club Risque. It was free to get in, but the drinks were insane...$10 for a shot! Ouch. We stayed there until 1:00. I literally danced all-night that night. Good music and a cute, tall, bald boy from L.A. made the night fun. Since Saturday was our last night, we wanted to go out and have an especially good time...and boy did we. We first tried to go to Pure at Ceaser's Palace, but the line was an hour and a half long. We didn't want to wait so were going to Club Rio. As we walked to the cab line, a guy stopped us and gave us his promo card for Light at the Bellagio. We could get in free and get a free round of champagne - score! But when we got there they were going to make my cousin pay $30!!! He ended up leaving, so I was upset and angry because it was our last night and I wanted to hang with my cuz since he live in AZ and I never see him and he could be sent to Iraq or any place else in the world being in the Air Force and all. At any rate, he ended up coming back and getting in for free (thanks to Jenn). We hung out with some VIP table and then we split up when we all met people. We found each other when the bar closed but went our separate ways again. I ended up playing Blackjack with some guy from Colorado. I got home at 7:00am and was the first one home!!

Sunday is when I received the bad news. My brother informed the Louie had ran off the night before and they couldn't find him. I was in shock and was immediately crushed at the thought of my puppy being gone and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't get a earlier flight home, so I was stuck in Vegas until 11pm. The whole day I cried and waited for my phone to ring with good news. When I got home Monday morning, Jenn, Beckie and I started wandering around my brother's house, didn't find anything so I had to go home without Louie. The following 3 days were the hardest ever. I made a million phone calls and went online searching. With every passing day I lost more hope. How could an 11 pound puppy survive outside in the cold so long? I tried to stay positive, thinking someone found him and just didn't want to give him back. But on Thursday, I got a phone call while at work from both the Monroe Animal Control and Mary Johnson of Flat Rock saying that Louie had been found. Words can't even describe the relief an joy I felt at that moment. I left work and drove straight down to get him. When I got there Louie was still curled up in a pile of leaves because he wouldn't let the woman pick him up. But when he saw me, he knew mom found him and tried to stand, but didn't have the strength. I picked him up and he was nothing but bones. He had lost 2.5 pounds (22% of his weight). I took him to my brother's to clean him up and then went to the vet. There I found out his tempurature was extremely low, 90 degrees. His temp is supposed to be 99-102. Basically, Louie would not have survived another night. It was truly a miracle that he was found when he was. I brought him home Thursday night but then went back to the vet Friday for a follow-up. He passed all his tests and now he just needs to get his weight and strength back. His personality hasn't changed - still as lovable as ever and still annoys our cats :) I am so thankful for his safe return and appreciate all the thoughts and prayers everyone provide along the way.