ELWOOD'S BLUES
I took my dog to the vet on Wednesday to get his nails trimmed and some medicine for his ears. Beagles are prone to yeast infections in their ears, which are deep and convoluted.
This dog is such a drama-king. When the vet clipped his nails, he cried as if his paws were being cut off. Beagles don't bark; they bay. They have loud voices. So everybody in entire clinic heard him. Immediately, two nurses came into comfort him. When the discovered that he was crying this loudly about getting his nails clipped, they laughed. But they still loved him up.
Both of my dogs have issues. We adopted Elwood at the end of April and Sophie in September from owners who couldn't handle them/didn't have room/time for them. Elwood's former owner is a beagle breeder, and Elwood is larger than the average beagle. His former mom said he was just too big for her. I wonder what she'd think of Sophie. My husband was in the back yard the other day and thought a deer had wandered onto our property before he realized it was Sophie.
Elwood's former mom had tried another placement for him that didn't work, so he has abandonment issues. Sophie was kept outside in a dog run and never got to socialize with her humans very much. Both of them are starved for attention and need constant supervision.
We like our dogs to be part of our family. They are never allowed to forget that they are dogs, but they sleep inside at night and have as much right to be anywhere in the house as any of us humans. This is the first time that Sophie and Elwood have had plenty of love and attention, as well as consistent and effective discipline.
We got both of these dogs because on April 8th of this year we lost our other dog, Chili. That's her in the avatar for this blog: Superdog. Chili was half blue-heeler and half basset. Bassets are mellow, but heelers are high-strung and tend to bond with only one or two humans. They don't like other dogs at all. Chili would have hated Elwood and Sophie.
For some reason Chili and I bonded immediately and forever from the first moment I saw her. I've never loved another dog as much and I suspect I never will. Elwood is a sweet little guy, but he's no Chili. She was only nine when she died (stomach cancer), so I didn't have as much time with her as I thought I would.
I've taken in Elwood and Sophie for Chili's sake. Elwood's mom and Sophie's dad couldn't take care of them the way they wanted, but at least they know that their dogs are happy and healthy and have a family that loves them.
What does this have to do with writing? Not very much. Not every post on this blog will. But I'm a story-teller, so I tell stories. Some might inspire you; some might bore you. This one explains why I see myself as saving the world one dog at a time.
posted by Mim @ 7:38 AM
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