Last night, every once and a while Gambit started coughing with a horrible retching sound. I worried all night with images of a splinter or something else stuck in his throat. At one point yesterday I caught the little critter with a couple pieces of wood in his mouth. I swear he was sitting right underneath me the whole time. I still haven't found which piece of furniture they came from. The shelter doesn't open until noon so I took him into our own vet at 9 a.m. I love our vet. Anyway, he has a respiratory infection and after he received a shot, we returned laiden with anti-biotics and a gentle canned food to ease his sore throat. He coughed and retched all the way home, so I guess it was going to get a lot worse. Just after we got home, the vet's office called to let us know he also has some kind of protozoan parasite. He'd been put on de-worming medicine right after he'd been picked up but this one must have been too tough. All of this is pretty normal for a puppy that's been through what he'd been through. The vet warned us to keep him home and away from other dogs until his immune system rebounds. We've been debating what to do with him while we're at World Fantasy this weekend. We'd thought about waiting until after this weekend to get him but the shelter staff said he'd be better with us even if we left for a few days, so we took him. We have a great pet sitter and had already lined her up to come in as often as the puppy needed while we're gone. We had decided it would be less stressful than moving him to someone else's house for just three days. Now, I'm tempted to stay home to take care of him.