Sam gave us a scare Friday night. Around 2 am I woke up to the sound of dog legs banging our bed frame. It was Zeke, who was fleeing his and Sam’s bed because Sam was in the throes of some kind of seizure.

After I managed to turn a light on, I saw Sam wallowing about halfway between lying on his side and lying on his back. He was arching his back one way and then the other. It wasn’t a rapid jerking, but a slow, metronome-like movement. I spoke to him but didn’t touch him for fear that he would bite. After about a minute, which seemed much longer than that, he slowly rolled into the Sphinx position, but he continued to sway. He swung his head in a wide arc back and forth. That went on for another long minute or so, gradually slowing to a bare shudder in his head.

At that point I was petting and comforting him. He was making a licking sound, like dogs do before they vomit. After a few minutes, he vomited up about half of his dinner. I was torn whether to take him to Rome’s new emergency vet clinic or wait until morning to take him to our vet. After he settled down, I decided to wait. He vomited up a foamy mess once more, then seemed OK, lying against the wall on his bed.

Saturday morning I took him to the vet. She said that my description of his behavior did not sound like a typical seizure, but that at this point we can really only wait to see whether it happens again. There is anti-seizure medication, but she said the goal of its use is to keep seizures to a maximum of one per month, so if he only has one per month, they don’t give the medication.

He seems perfectly normal now. He went for his usual two-mile walk and was as energetic as always. I suspect that it was not an epileptic seizure, but I really have no idea what it could have been.

The good news about Sam is that he made it to the vet and back without vomiting in the truck.

On the stray dog front, we learned that someone had picked up the gray pit bull mama dog I fed on Thursday. We hoped it was the same people who took her puppies, but it seems not to have been. Now we are hoping the puppies are weaned, and that the mama gets adopted.

All is quiet on the Sylvester front. He has not reappeared as of Saturday evening. I looked back at some earlier cat posts and found that he disappeared once before for several days, so we haven’t completely given up hope. But we have scoured the neighborhood and we have spoken to the people whose outdoor, stray cat Sylvester often visits, and no one knows anything.

Mollie’s feet were very sore on Friday. We called the vet, who said the antibiotics had not had time to work. She limped along on three feet all day. But on Saturday apparently the antibiotics kicked in; she started putting weight on her right front foot and seems close to normal. She’s due back at the vet’s in two weeks, but we are afraid she may be stuck inside for two months.

Aside from that, there was two additional pieces of good news. What we thought was another stray dog turned out to be a wanderer from down at the bottom of the mountain. His owners found him and took him home. And another dog that may or may not be a stray, but probably is, has taken up at a neighbor’s house. They say they will keep him unless someone comes to claim him.

So, as of now, there are no unaccounted-for stray dogs up on the mountain, one recovered seizing dog, and one missing cat. We’re hoping for a period of calm after this.