November 6, 2006 ~ A Choice of Ends
Monday.
Monty and Rose, playing on the bed
I don't know if she intended for this to be a public question, but I bet several of you are also wondering:
"How are those doggers doing?" asks Bex.
For the most part, they are thriving. Monty and Rose love that I'm home all of the time. They get a lot more attention, and they can lie on the bed inside all day long and be lazy, lazy dogs. Sleep the mornings away. Get handouts for lunch. Lick clean the messy baby's high chair tray. Sleep the afternoons away too.
sleepy Rose
There are definitely drawbacks for them, however. For instance, Morgan and I are usually more distracted, taking care of Grove. We don't give them our undivided attention as much any more. And we haven't had as much time to take them on hikes. Now that I have the backpack for Grove, I've been experimenting with taking them on hikes with Grove and me. I feel bad that it's taken so long to adjust, and that they haven't been out as much. But at least they still get a lot of exercise chasing each other around the pen most dry days. We're working on it.
And they do still keep us on our toes. For instance, we use petroleum jelly on Grove to prevent diaper rash (and it works WAY better than those diaper rash creams, that's for sure). A few weeks ago, I came in to the bedroom and found Rose sitting on the bed with the new tub of petroleum jelly between her paws. She'd eaten the entire tub and was licking the bottom clean.
Oh, I was furious. I yelled and growled at her, took the tub away, and called the vet. Got one of the techs. "Hi. Um. My 90-pound dog just ate a whole tub of petroleum jelly. What should I do? Will it hurt her?"
She took my name and put me on hold while she conferred with the vet. I could hear a smile behind her voice when she came back. She'd probably seen in my file that we were the same ones who had come in last year with a dog who had eaten an entire bar of soap, a few books, a toothbrush, a roll of toilet paper, and other interesting bath products. "Well, it won't hurt her... But she'll be having some really... um... greasy poops if you don't get her to throw it up right away."
"So basically, I get to choose which end I'd rather deal with it coming out of?"
She chuckled. "Right."
Rose howling
I chose the front end, not wanting her need to go outside every fifteen minutes to keep us all up all night long. I poured a dose of hydrogen peroxide down her throat, shut her in the bathroom, and waited. And waited. And waited. Twenty minutes passed and nothing happened, so I gave her a second dose. And waited, and waited, and waited. When I was about to call the vet again, she started heaving.
I came into the bathroom to assess the damage and found a foul-smelling oil slick across the bathroom floor. I let her out and cleaned it up. It left a slick greasy spot on the floor. As I was trying to get that up, I heard her heaving again. Before I could get to her, she'd left a huge deposit on the bed and the floor. Great. And while I was cleaning that up, Grove woke up. So I went and got him, plopped him down on the floor at the other end of the room with some toys, and ran for some more towels. I came back to find that Grove had just discovered the fascinating greasy spot on the bed and was slapping his hands in it. UGH! I washed the baby, finished cleaning the floor, threw the comforter in the wash... And about that time, Rose threw up again.
And the kicker is, she still woke us up twice in the middle of the night to rid herself of some more petroleum jelly from the back end.
And they say babies are messy. Right.
Monty
I love those two so much, though. And in the evening, after Grove is in bed, I can cuddle up with them on the couch, Monty's furry head in my lap and a book in my hand. The warmth of those moments, my hand in his fur, Monty's sleepy bulk against me... well, they more than make up for all the mess and the hassle.
Send any questions you have for me to dawntreader AT fallingstar DOT net.
|
