Day 18 - San Diego

I was awoken this morning to the sound of Luna throwing up, groggy, I made sure she was aiming for her blanket and was going to settle back to sleep when she continued to puke, I took a look at her vomit and realized there was a lot of fresh blood. I immediately got up and went to the closest vet; they didn't have room for her today but seemed very concerned and phoned around and got me an appointment for 2 pm at a nearby vet and advised me to be prepared to take her to the emergency vet if she started puking again. We headed back to our campsite to park there until 12 pm checkout, walking around and hanging out in the shade. After checking out we drove to the vet to get an idea of where it was, went for a walk in a neighbourhood, then, in desperate need of air conditioning (my Lexus does not have a working air conditioning system), we went to a nearby Petsmart to hang out for the remaining hour. Luna enjoyed playing with a little stuffed, squeaky fox toy that we ended up taking home. There are always many comments on how she looks like a fox, although since arriving in the US, people have also begun commenting on her looking somewhat like a coyote, I haven't heard that before! The people at the Torqoise Animal Hospital were great at making everything as pleasant and 'fun' as possible. All Luna's vitals checked out as normal and the vet commented on how wonderful her lungs and heart sounded. She was dehydrated (don't worry, I've been offering her water very frequently, especially in this heat, the puking just took too much out of her), so they gave her some fluids, she had a gigantic bulge off her right shoulder after she came out from the back. She also had an antibiotic shot, whether it was necessary or not, I'm not sure, but I prefer to be on the safe side with anything that concerns Luna, as I think you all know by now ;) Luna was eating a lot of sticks yesterday, which is not uncommon for her, she walks on a nice loose leash generally these days, but if she sees a stick she lunges to grab it and eats it with gusto. The vet believes that the stick irritated her belly and that it is likely we are in the clear, if any more vomiting with blood occurs, an x-ray is in order. She ate a half a tablespoon of her can of bland food about 2 hours ago and nothing has come up which is a very good sign, poor girl doesn't seem to mind too much that that's all she's gotten to eat today, but has hinted a few times that she'd like more, what a good, patient pup! Three vet visits in less than three weeks, what is with this US place?! They say these things are supposed to come in threes, so here's hoping "they" are right.

When we left the clinic, there was a dog training class going on in the parking lot, Luna, in an extremely heightened state of anxiety (I could hear her crying the entire time she was in the back room!) announced her presence loud and clear to the entire class, the teacher probably used us as an example of a poorly trained dog afterwards! Ah well, glad to be of service!

With it being only around 2:30, I needed a cool place for Luna to have a low-key day, so we headed to a Motel 6, which cost me almost exactly what my campsite last night cost, what a crazy place! The temperature has been reaching 25 degrees celsius, so we are absolutely cooking, being in an air-conditioned room after being in and out of an oven of a car all day has been such a relief! The man that I registered for the motel with was also from Canada, so found a way to get me some kind of discount, it was wonderful! He also commented "You drove all the way down here? Wow, you are a brave soul!", now I've been called that along with "Gutless wonder" within a year, no wonder I need to do some soul searching!

For photos today I'll use ones from the past that were still on my phone.

Luna assisting with route planning.

This was one moment that I realized I need practice at this whole selfie thing, the Hollywood sign was obviously much higher up...however there were too many people around to do another attempt without growing premature grey hairs from stress.

We are feeling the heat! 

We are treated to some wonderful views on our travels, my co-pilot tries to stay up to watch them all.