We adopted a 12-year-old chihuahua-Pomeranian from a local rescue. He's a real sweetie. Hard of hearing, heart murmer, missing teeth. But he has lots of love to give.

He had some sort of fit the morning of January 1. Happy New Year! I was looking forward to a lazy morning, which I instead spent in a local animal emergency hospital. Arnie is still with us (with a diagnosis of possible syncope), but gave us a royal shock.

I think I have a new bunch of gray hair now. Or is that because I'm nearly 45? <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, my wife and I are very quickly exiting the house. I give no thought at all to my EDC shoulder bag. I'm carrying Arnie, and he's my primary concern. My wife asks what we should do about cash, and I tell her to grab the dentist envelope. Again, I'm thinking only about Arnie.

Our dentist is great, but they've been burned by insurance companies so often they now prefer to be paid up front in cash. So that's what we do.

We get to the animal hospital, fill out the forms, and wait. While we wait, I think, gee I wish I had this or that with me. Everything was at home in my shoulder bag. Including my emergency stash of cash. I hid it so I wouldn't spend it on gas. I remembered it only after we got back home.

Lesson learned: My meticulously assembled EDC shoulder bag doesn't do me any good if I don't remember to take it with me, especially in an emergency. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

-- Craig