Bilingual, sneezing muppet baby cat-dog

Sadly, the twitter campaign ended last week. With no acknowledgment from Kelly, it was, for all intents and purposes, a failure. It was fun while it lasted though, and I want to thank everyone who tweeted for me (many of you even joined twitter, which is even more awesome). I decided to end the campaign because the crazy place that I had entered when I started the campaign was rapidly expanding and there was nothing I could do about it. Visions of me and Clarkson hiding in the bushes outside of a mansion in Texas started creeping into my head and I then knew was time to give it a rest. Who knows though, maybe she saw the blog and was unimpressed with Clarkson's cuteness and my ramblings on his life? No, I don't think so either.

Aside from the twitter campaign, life is relatively calm at the Jiggins household. Clarkson still sneezes every day. It's nowhere near as bad as it was back in December, but every morning when he wakes up, he sneezes about 4 or 5 times and then I'd say throughout the day there are about 5 or 6 more intermittent sneezes. It doesn't seem to bother him, so we're not too alarmed. At least it has added another description to his already over descriptive moniker. Sergeant Clarkson: the sneezing muppet baby cat-dog.

We leave for Spain on Friday, so naturally we have taken to practicing our spanish at home. Clarkson now responds to his name in Spanish (pronounced "Claaark-son"), sientate (sit), and da-me cinco (give me five). Another addition to the moniker! The bilingual sneezing muppet baby cat-dog. God, he's so cool...check him out:

You Were My Strength When I Was Weak...

On Thursday night Clarkson started sneezing. A lot. He was eventually able to sleep after a few good sneezing fits, but as soon as he woke up on Friday, the sneezing came back. I'd say throughout the day on Friday and most of the day on Saturday, he was probably sneezing once every ten to twenty seconds, which if you think about it, is pretty horrible.

He would take his little paw, scratch at his nose, and growl to himself after each sneeze - a growl that seemed desperate, a growl that said "this totally sucks, Sean, when is it going to stop?"

As you can imagine, I basically fell apart. I immediately googled "puppy" + "constant" + "sneezing" and what came up? A quaint little story about a puppy who sneezed for a couple of days and then DIED.

"Hi, I need to see the vet right away, Sergeant Clarkson will not stop sneezing!"

"Um, let me talk to the Doctor and see if I can get him on the phone..."

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Images of a puppy burial flashed through my head complete with black puppy casket, red roses falling in slow motion on black puppy casket, and Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me" played as black puppy casket is lowered into the ground.

"Um, hi, the vet said to just watch him and come in tomorrow if he's still sneezing, there's really no reason to race in just yet."

And there it was. In my head, the casket was lowered, and Celine sang those last sweet words: "I'm everything I am, because you loved me......."

Apparently, the vet tech at Blum Animal hospital did not share my concern. Somehow, I was able to take her advice and just watch the little guy sneeze and sneeze and sneeze...

Clarkson's sneezing did not subside by Saturday, so we (Joe) had to take him to the vet to see what the hell was going on. This is where I will leave off with this story, as Joe initially promised to guest blog, but suddenly he has "lost inspiration."

If he doesn't pick up the story in a few days (which includes some pretty damn funny moments at the vet, maybe not on the level of the racist remarks we heard the last time, but still funny nonetheless), I'll try to summarize based on what was relayed to me. Oh and FYI, it's Tuesday and Clarkson is still sneezing, though MUCH less.

Poor little muppet baby!!!