I’d been prepared to drive Flick 125 miles north to San Jose to have a veterinary cardiologist take a look at him. But the plan changed.
Animals
Word-lite Wednesday: Flick vs DVD player
The Worry List
I’m sure anyone with pets or children have one. Probably not written down but somewhere in the back of our minds it’s lurking there, The Worry List: who of our companions to be concerned about the most and why. It will change over time and as circumstances change. Here is my most updated:
Flick
I haven’t written anything about Flick, and now it seems the universe is forcing my hand.
As I was almost out the door to work yesterday I realized that he hadn’t moved from the spot he’d been sleeping in since at least last night. Getting worried, I picked him up to get him to move around a bit.
Wordless Wednesday: Opposite
The Rabbit Husk
Hershey liked going to the river. When we got to the top of the berm the first time she went with her buddy Rex, she stood stock still and stared. It was probably the most water she’d seen in her life to that point (subsequent trips to the ocean would change that) and she seemed boggled that such a glittering, meandering thing could exist. An unhooking of leashes, and a race down the hill later and she was chest deep in it, romping with Rex.
Caturday: The Cattery Pt. 1
I’d thought about building a cattery for my cat family (Mama Kali and grown babies: Ivy, Morpheus and Percheron) almost as soon as I had moved into my current house in 2001. It was always “Oh, that’d be so cool. The cats would love it so much!” what finally spurred me to action wasn’t the coolness, or the wow factor, it was more of an Ugh factor.
Snow Day
Last Sunday I heard there was some sort of Significant Sports Event happening (the Mega Cup? Souper Spoon? Something like that.) Because of this I hatched a cunning plan.
Assuming there was a significant overlap between people who like sports, and people who like to play in the snow, I had the idea that there would be considerably fewer of the latter because they would be, or be getting ready to, watch the former. This would leave the dogs and I a considerable area to play in the Sno Parks (yes, that’s how they’re spelled) up in the mountains without any, or at least very few people around.
Technical Difficulties
I took the dogs up to the mountains to play in the snow this weekend. I took a ton of pictures with my big, beautiful DSLR… which my computer isn’t speaking to at the moment. While I engage in some couple’s counseling (and a good deal of swearing) please enjoy these few pictures I took with my phone.
Stay tuned for better pictures and much more fun! Now, where did I put that sledgehammer…?
Broom Bravery Pt. 2
It wasn’t good enough. Having Hershey less scared of the broom wasn’t a victory. It didn’t purge the monster who had beaten her so memorably from her life. It was still sad to see her slink out of the room whenever I swept.
Normally, having an excuse to not have to clean is great! This was more important than my laziness though. This was about the quality of my dog’s life; this was about her not having to live in fear, and with somethings she wasn’t. Out in the yard, a stick or yard tool in my hand no longer sent her running for the far corner! Sticks or a Chuckit! at the dog park were no longer objects of terror.
So after a hiatus (six months maybe, probably more like a year) we started up again. The good news was that what we had worked on before had held! We could start off this second time around with her touching the broom right away!
To up the ante further the broom was going to touch her! Needless to say, Hershey was dubious of this plan. The pattern was the same as before: Broom, retreat, resetting (or resitting) repeat with broom, reward any sign of progress. Eventually that worked too! The broom could touch her!
Still, I couldn’t actually sweep around her. It was hard to juggle sweeping and treating at the same time. If I left treats on the ground they’d be gobbled too fast and she’d be free to flee after she’d sucked them all up! At the suggestion of a friend who’d used it training her own dogs I tried… Cheez Wiz. It can’t be gobbled up all at once, she had to stay and keep licking if she wanted it, and boy did she want it!
“Brave Baby”
Yum!
Om Nom Nom
All gone!
After that, it was like the fear was gone. I could get out the broom, and sweep and not have to worry. In a few short weeks she went from wary but laying on the couch, to dead to the world while I chased the dust bunnies to their inevitable doom. In a month or two I forgot that it was even an issue. I was sweeping, she was laying on the couch (she does actually move, I swear!) and I stopped and remembered what she’d been through to get there. I couldn’t be prouder of her.
Epilogue:
So everything was fixed, her fears have been banished forever, never to trouble her again.
I sincerely wish.
In the last few months I’ve noticed a pattern. The fear of brooms has generalized to anything unusual, or unexpected in my (or other’s) hand: a bottle, wine glass, hose, magnifying glass, anything she hasn’t seen before (or often) evokes a response. She doesn’t flee the room like the bad old days but she is nervous and hesitant to come close when an unknown thing is in my hand.
The fear that was beaten into her at such a young age is still there. It may be withered and dry, but like any weed it is adapting to conditions and trying to resurface. How do we beat it now? Will we really be able to? Maybe some part of it will be there her whole life. But for now, I can be satisfied with the fact that she can sleep on the couch while I clean up around her.
smoredogs 