Gone To The Dogs

This is not the post I intended to publish today - intended to publish something like 10 hours ago, BTW. Nor is it new work. Many viewers will recognize both these works from previous exhibits where a numbers of individuals expressed a desire to purchase them "if only they were my dogs". No. Not at all. And there's a reason for that.

My day has gone to the dogs. These dogs in particular.

As it happened, the dog on the right, Pen, the youngest who came into the house intending to become the alpha, got into something. We haven't really figured out what, but it was something guaranteed to cause stomach issues. Then the dog on the left, Puck, formerly the 'runt' of his litter and the sweetest dog on the planet, also got into the same substance because that's what Pen was doing. She's the alpha. He does what she tells him to. There's an analogy there to human relationships, but I digress.

So BLURP, Pen gets the diarrhea first. If she did anything right in this adventure, she BLURPED it someplace easy to see and clean. She seemed to get over it in a day, though. Then Puck gets it, only Puck did it in his kennel. Big mess. Afterwards, he seemed to dry up. Nothing at all out of that particular channel for 24 hours. Thought he was through it too. Nope. Woke up this morning to find his freshly clean kennel freshly BLURPED, this time with clear sign that his colon was irritated. Rushed him to the vet, who confirmed there was nothing serious internally going on, gave him a shot and gave some pills to give him until the condition dries up. $95 bucks (actually reasonable, as things go), plus another $85 at the pet store because, in cleaning their bedding, I set the washer incorrectly and caused their old bedding to explode in a cloud of stuffing. Now I've been back and forth to the vet twice (once to drop, once to pick up), back and forth to the pet store, back and forth with work commutes, I'm bleary-eyed having gotten little sleep the night before because Pen was barking (likely because she knew Puck was sick), and tonight I will curl up with Puck to sleep in the couch to monitor his condition - this day had gone to the dogs. And nothing else I needed to do was touched. The dogs got it all.

WHY DO WE DO THIS?!!

Yes, yes, because we love our pets, they bring us comfort and joy, they are a constant source of entertainment, and, yes also, used by some as an in for meeting potential sexual partners. All important. I used to tease a family member, who treats her cats and dogs like her children and believes you should too, that pets are an emergency food source in times of natural disaster or nuclear attack. This did not endear me. Thing is though, days like these they ARE like our children. There are times for every pet owner when they will drop everything to care for the creature they love, and they will dole out large sums of money and devote long periods of time and expend incalculable emotion to comfort that creature.

What are some of your adventures in pet care? This IS a blog, folks; please, leave me your thoughts ...