It's been a crazy few days around here.
Thursday was uneventful, as Tucker and I spent the majority of it at work. I had a hard time getting Tucker to do his midday BM at the vet clinic, so when we were walking around the Carpet Store on my lunch break and he started to walk funny, I just told him to park where he stood. (We were in the back warehouse away from customers and on concrete.) The look on his face was priceless. I'm sure he was thinking, "What? Right here? Are you nuts?" The way I saw it, not only did I really need him to go ahead and get it out, but he needs to learn to park anywhere he's told to, whether he likes it or not. ;)
Friday was somewhat different. I had errands to run and Mom had a doctor's appointment, so we opted to car pool into town. After I dropped her off, Tucker and I went to the bank, a used bookstore, and then to the Carpet Store. Dad asked if Mom, Mattie, and I wanted to go to lunch, so after I picked Mom up from the doctor's office, we went home to pick up Mattie.
Best of all, when I drove from the Carpet Store to the vet clinic to pay Tucker's last bill (it's five minutes down the road) I decided to just tether him to the front seat instead of putting him in the crate. He did a great job. :) I don't think we'll be needing a crate in the car much longer.
We couldn't just leave Mattie's new puppy, Zaida, free to roam the house while we were gone, and she'd chewed through her soft-sided crate, so we decided to use the airline crate I borrowed from the vet clinic for Tucker. We put it on the vinyl in the kitchen, gave her toys to chew and treats to eat, and left. When we got home, we found quite a mess. Not only had she peed in the crate and shredded the towel, she'd managed to pee outside the door onto the floor as well. We gave her a bath and then I took the crate outside to hose it down. As I was getting all the towel shreds out, I found a tooth. At first, I assumed she's lost another baby tooth, but the more I looked at it, the less it looked like a puppy tooth. I took it inside and compared it to Zaida's remaining canine teeth - sure enough, it appeared she had knocked out her bottom right adult canine tooth. Knowing from work that the root still left in her jaw could cause an abscess, I took her to the clinic. They took a look, decided it was indeed an adult tooth, and gave her some antibiotics.
Well, that night, she struck again. She cried almost all night, shredded the towel, peed in the crate, and didn't let anyone (besides Tucker and I who are in the basement) get any sleep. Mattie had to make the hard, but mature decision to release her back to the pound. Anytime anyone left the room, even if she wasn't left alone, she freaked out. Our active family is not the right home for a dog with extreme separation anxiety. We hope she's adopted by someone who is willing and able to let her stay by his/her side all the time.
We had a cookout planned for last night, which was a good distraction from the morning's events. Our friends the Gospodinoffs brought their lab Rocky and the Carpenters brought their little Corgi mix Roxy. Tucker thought he was in heaven - two dogs to play with! He played so hard that by about 8:30, he was sacked out in my lap. It was so much fun - a great way to end the summer! GWU in 5 days!
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