Before I tell you about my weekend (which was FAB!) let me tell you about my morning.

doggy zippy starts tossing her cookies around 3am. By 3:15 it is evident she is just not right. She is listing, eyes darting back and forth, hurling from the deepest parts of her intestinal track the most vile bile you can imagine. I didn't think I'd ever get that crap up off the floor. And she has fallen over and can't get up, no matter how many times she presses that little plastic box chained around her neck. She's seriously acting like she's had a stroke.

I am scared.

I weep.

I think to myself, "I need a spare! I need a spare! I need a spare!"

mr. zippy and I dash through every red light in town en route to the Animal Emergency. He's driving as I cover doggy zippy's eyes so she's not moaning and hurling even more as her brain overdoses on rapid input. We are covered from head to toe in bath towels and sheets. I am wearing my rain slicker - as it's raining outside, but what a stroke of GENIUS that was!

but the AER had good news:

it's not a stroke, but a burst blood vessel in the part of her brain that controls motion and stability.

"Very common in older dogs. Here's a shot in her ass and some drugs for home. It'll happen again but next time won't be so scary as the first time."

It's doggy vertigo.

They don't know exactly why it happens in people either, but it won't kill her, so long as she's not driving, and isn't actually painful to her. Just scary and uncomfortable and, with sudden onsets as this one was, will make her hurl.

On the way home, mr. zippy didn't drive through anymore red lights. doggy zippy held her head out the window with her nose to the wind just the way dog's are supposed to ride in moving vehicles. I wondered how many parents think they need a spare when their only child gets ill.

six hours later she's clearly feeling better but not well.

"Expect it to happen again."

It's going to break my heart when she goes.

I definitely need a spare.