Tuesday, September 13, 2011

so {this} is how you age in dog years

within months of marriage, hubs and i adopted a puppy.
is there a word exceeding hyper?
that's what he was.
fortunately for him, he was cute.
i vowed that if we ever owned another dog,
we would do our homework a little more thoroughly.

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when we decided it was time for the girls to have a pup.
we opted to skip the pup-phase, and extend an act of kindness to a rescue dog.
so i hit the world wide web, and found jasmine.
yep, she already had that name...
and it fit her just fine.
it was better than all of the hannah-montana-themed names the girls were dreaming up at the time.  we're way past that phase now.

did you know that black dogs are labeled as least likely to be adopted?
they look more intimidating.
it's sad, really.
because we can't imagine not having jasmine in our lil' family team.

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only...
she has one fault.
that's all that comes to mind, anyway.
*ehem*
after today, i think it's safe to label it as extreme separation anxiety.
{oh, yes, i've researched plenty of things to try.}

she even goes to the back door when she needs to... ummm... throw up.  sorry.  just want you to see how eager she is to please her pack leader.  but she's protective of her pack, too.  takes her a while to warm up to new people.  *sigh*

we look forward to colder temperatures when she can ride e.very.where. with us.
she does so well in the car.
she mostly wants to know if we've brought any left-overs.

during the warmer months, at home, it's a different story.

we kennel her in the house, when we are away.
always have.  it was agreed upon in our adoption papers.
so we haven't tested any other alternatives.
i'm beginning to question that.
but i like my sofa in tact.  you know?

today, the girls and i came home from theater class only to find her paw mangled inside the wire door of her kennel.  {she's hurt her nose before.  wore out her old wire kennel.  this was the second time in the new aspca one.}  i'm thinking of renaming her houdini... i couldn't figure out how she managed it.  the rim of her plastic water bowl was also bitten to pieces, while holding blood.  a sight we hope never to see again.

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i sent the tearful girls out of the room and called our pet-sitter at work.  she told me to get someone to help me load the entire kennel in the car and take her to the vet. {sometimes, you just need someone to tell you what to do in an emergency}

looking outside, i'd never been so happy to see a garbage truck.

yep, you betcha... i ran down the street like a crazy lady, flagging down the garbage men.  they ran with me to my house and loaded the kennel in the car.  one asked if the dog would bite.  ummmm... she's stuck INSIDE the kennel.  i'm not complaining.  i was thankful for the muscle help.

driving as carefully as i could, as to not jolt the kennel, i called hubs.  yeah, remember?  he's out of town.

our vet's office took her in right away.  we counted 5 people who came out to tell us that jazzy was given a sedative and that the wire was finally removed from her paw... via bolt cutters. we left her in good hands, but it really put a wrench in our studies.  we accomplished a few things, simply for distraction, but our minds were elsewhere.

her prognosis:
no fractures.
no broken teeth.
{blood from possible tongue wound on water bowl. more than likely happened due to panic when paw became injured.}
antibiotics.
pain medication.
lots of limping.
stitches.
bandage.
follow-up visits.
try to avoid taking drugs for anxiety.

our prognosis:
wiping tears.
huge sigh of relief.
arguing over who 'gets to' feed the dog dinner.
9 yo sleeping in mom's room as to "not have jazzy sleep alone."
very empty pocketbook.  ouch.
investigate natural remedies to help jazz with nerves.
maybe for mom's, too. ;)

we ended the day with everyone {including jazz} watching marley and me, the puppy years.

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think i may ask hubs if he wants to switch jobs for a week.

12 comments:

  1. I'm glad she's okay! Our dog absolutely loves the kennel...she is there a lot and they love her too. They say she is their favorite dog because she is such a love and gets along with everybody. She bounds out of the car and runs in. She doesn't do this at the vet so I know she knows. She has been boarded since she was a puppy though and spent six months in a kennel when we first moved to England (quarantine laws)...I'm sure with an adopted dog who is older there are more issues when it comes to 'leaving' them. Hope she feels better soon!

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  2. And I forgot to add...these things ONLY happen when the hubs are out of town!

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  3. OH MY GOSH!!! I got worried when I saw it on Twitter this morning. Poor thing. I'm so glad the doc got her all fixed up. Hopefully Hubs can come home early atleast. I think you handled it very well. I think I would've freaked out. And I'm out of pills!!! :)

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  4. Dogs are like babies that never grow up! We worry about them just the same. When I am at my nature store there are always people picking up herbal remedies for their pets. I am sure a good store can help you.

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  5. poor thing! and how awful to walk in on that... glad everything worked out ok!

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  6. Poor Jasmine. She is a beautiful dog. I am so sorry that happened, I am sure your poor girlies were freaking out. Kei would be. Hope you can find something at the herbal store and I hope Jazz recovers quickly.

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  7. Oh my word. Poor Jasmine. Not to mention your nerves!! I love picturing you running down the street to get the garbage guys! :) Dear me though. Poor dog.

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  8. Aw, so sorry to hear this about sweet Jasmine :(

    So sad that black dogs are the least likely to be adopted. I have had two black dogs and they were both sweet :)

    It's wonderful that Jazzy has a family that loves her. I can not even imagine what I would do if I saw wire in the foot! Panic! I would probably need to call someone too! lol.

    Glad she is feeling better! I hope the next few MONTHS are just easy peasy for you--you deserve it after this last week!

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  9. And also, we have the same kind of kennel (ASPCA) for the rabbits and I cannot imagine how Jasmine did something that required bolt cutters??

    She's amazing. And I was explaining to my girls what "anxious" meant--I ended up saying, "Like Winchester." Carrie T's parents' dog. Like MAJOR anxious.

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  10. Awww, she looks so pitiful. I heard on the radio the other day that black dogs were the least likely to be adopted. The animal shelter in the big city was having a sale on black dogs...a major sale. It almost made me wish we needed another dog.
    So glad she's going to be okay. It must've been traumatic walking in and seeing her like that.

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  11. Ok, going to try and remember all (or most, or at least SOME) of what I said before. Don't know why it didn't go thru!

    I am really sorry for what happened! Both for her poor foot and you and the girls having to see her like that. Hooray for strong trash guys!

    When we had our dog, she would do the same thing to her kennel when we left! We would come back to her blanket and the bottom of the cage absolutely soaked with slobber (and sometimes blood) from chewing on both blanket and cage. Even the carpet around the kennel area was frequently soaked!

    I finally decided to try her out of the kennel when we were gone one day. And you know, it worked so much better! She claimed my daughter's bed as the place to hang out while we were gone because she could see from there out the front window and watch for us. She didn't destroy anything, and after a while, as we were getting ready to go somewhere, she would even sense what was happening and go get in her spot on the bed to watch us leave. We kept trying it, and it kept working. I don't know why it eased her anxiety to be out of the kennel, but it did!

    I'm not saying that that would work with Jazzy, but it might be time to consider other options.

    I'm sorry it happened when your hubby wasn't around and you had to deal with it by yourself.

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