Sunday, July 3, 2011

The Doggone Truth

Molly Speedbump, the geriatric deaf dog, has been with me now for slightly more than a year. In that time she has figured out how to climb on the bed, dig up rawhides that Lucy the elderly blind dog buried in the back yard years ago, and pee near, if not always on, the puppy pads spread on the game room floor for that purpose.

Taking Ginger and Molly for a walk in the morning is an exercise in planning and patience. Ginger gets so excited when it's time to go that she bounds in the air trying to lick my face, which makes getting her harness on somewhat challenging. She has yet to give me a black eye, but it's been a close thing a few times. Molly presents different challenges. She spins around on the hardwood floors when she's excited, and she hasn't gained any agility in the last twelve months. Lately I've been putting a boot on her tumor-leg foot since she tends to drag that foot when she gets tired. (Having a trail of blood lead to my front door is just not quite the done thing.) Putting a boot on the spinning dog while the other dog is jumping up to lick your face is just not easy, no matter what you do.

In any case, each day starts off with me adding multiple layers of duct tape to the boot, because otherwise it looks like this:



which doesn't really protect her toes that much.

So, yeah. That's me every morning, wiping dog spit off my face, trying to keep Ginger from attacking bigger dogs on leashes, and listening to the "whoosh, pause, whoosh, pause, whoosh, pause" of Molly scuffing her foot as she trots along with a big wad of duct tape on her foot.

Dogs are such great stress relievers.

5 comments:

Eric said...

What you really need here is a single doggie roller skate. Without that thing in the front I could never figure out how to use.

Eric said...

By the way, I'm sure you're appreciating the advantages of deafness in a dog this evening.

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Somehow I don't think I'll ever be able to teach Molly to rollerskate. I think I just need to add one of those furniture slider things.

Yes, deafness in a dog is sometimes a real asset. Weirdly, the little dog, who constantly barks at random noises, seems completely unconcerned by all the fireworks.

JJ said...

Wait, Molly has a tumor leg?

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Yeah, she's had a gigantic non-resectable "thing" that's probably a lipoma (or at least the parts we aspirated were fat anyhow) since I got her. Her right rear thigh is twice the size of the left. It doesn't seem to bother her, and I think the only thing that could be done to get rid of it would be a leg amputation but the rest of her joints aren't that great so I'm just ignoring the tumor. I don't think it's really grown much in the last year.