Straydog UPDATE posted SUNDAY 1/19/03 at ~9:14 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

SUNDAY JANUARY 19 2003

Heather chews her stitches out, and I take her to the clinic to have her restitched

     What a Sunday morning this has been! While I was preparing food for little Puppies Chubs and Cassie at 8:00 this morning, Randy called me over the walkie-talkie saying I'd better come outside and look at Heather's stitches. She had "chewed them out!" (Heather had just been spayed less than a week ago.)

     I put Chubs and Cassie's food in their kennel for them and rushed outside to look at Heather. Randy was waiting for me in her kennel, and we looked at the open incision. Heather had chewed all but one stitch out, and the incision was open. Geesh! Yesterday afternoon when we checked it, we could tell she had been licking the stitches, and we put a bad tasting spray on the incision hoping she'd leave it alone. Obviously this did work.

     I called Dr. Morton at home (as his clinic is closed on Saturdays and Sundays), and I was hoping he would be there. Luckily he answered the phone, and he told me he needed to close the incision and for me to meet me at his clinic at 10:00.

Dr. Morton's morning hadn't begun so well either

     Heather and I waited in the van at the clinic until Dr. Morton arrived at 10:15. He pulled in the parking lot and parked beside our van, and when he got out of his car, I saw that he was dressed for Church, and I really felt bad for having interrupted his morning.

     When he came to greet me with his usual happy hello, I apologized to him for messing up his Sunday morning plans because of our emergency situation with Heather, and he laughed and said his morning hadn't begun well at all. He had just dressed for church when he got my call, and he also had another emergency call, and that dog would be arriving soon too. Then just as he was leaving to come to the clinic to take care of his two patient emergencies, he noticed his cows had gotten out of the pasture, and he had to go and round them up before coming to meet us, which was why he was late getting to the clinic.

     Once inside the clinic Dr. Morton gave Heather a mild sedative, and I held her while the doctor closed the incision again with a few more stitches. Then on went an E-Collar, and Dr. Morton carried the sleepy German Shepherd to a kennel, where she will stay until the incision heals and the stitches can be removed. Then I'll bring Heather back to our shelter again. As I was leaving the clinic, the second emergency case was waiting in the waiting room.

While I was at the clinic, Randy had "one heck of a time" tending to the dogs in recovery in the inside kennels!

     When I arrived home, Randy came to meet me and told me about the hectic morning he had had while I was gone. He said that while he was walking the dogs (to and from the park), it came to Max's turn in the play yard and also Molly's turn to go outside to be with her kennel mate, Max. Molly is in our house in a recovery kennel, convalescing from surgery to remove a benign tumor from her thigh, so Randy came in the house to get her. Molly's kennel is in the living room, and to get to her kennel, Randy had to pass between Snow's kennel and Chubs and Cassie's kennel in the kitchen. Randy said he tiptoed very quietly out of the house with Molly since Snow and the pups were sleeping and he did not want to wake them up.

All heck breaks loose

     When it was time for Molly to come back in to her house kennel, Randy again made it into the house (very quietly) with Molly and passed between Snow's kennel and the puppies' kennel without waking them. He got the E-Collar back on Molly and was about to tiptoe back outside again when he heard the sound of someone throwing up. It was Snowflake, Randy said, and just as he started to clean up her mess, Chubs and Cassie woke up and "began peeing and pooping all over their kennel floor" (which is what puppies do, of course, when they wake up).

     "Everything happened at once!" Randy exclaimed, so he radioed to Joel to stop cleaning the kennel Joel was on and go stay with Max, who was still in the play yard, because Randy would be tied up for a while with messes in the house. Then, not wanting the pups to step in the poop, Randy quickly finished cleaning Snow's mess and then went to Chubs and Cassie's kennel and began rolling up the messed upon potty papers just as the two playful pups "attacked" the moving papers, which made the poop fall out of them at the very same time as Randy reached to pick up the papers, causing Randy to end up with a handful of the warm mushy stuff instead of the rolled up puppy papers.

     He was laughing as he told the story of everything happening at once, and of trying to radio for someone to come help him hold back the pups so he could lay down more clean potty papers as the pups chewed on his pant legs, but his one hand was too poopy to get to his radio, and he was trying to scooch the pups out of the way with his clean hand so he could get out of the kennel. (I'm sure Randy didn't think it was quite so funny at the time.)

     Randy said he finally managed to get out of the puppy kennel and went to the sink to wash his hands. Then Snowflake looked as if she was about to get sick to her stomach again, so Randy quickly picked Snowflake up and took her outside for a little fresh air.

     "I never did have time to get more clean potty papers down," Randy added, "Everything just happened all at once." I know exactly what he is talking about!