Puppy Love

In the words of Elf, “I’m in love! I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it!”

First off, let me clarify that the Hubs and Little Bear are my number 1 priority.  However, a sweet old pup has completely stolen my heart.  Let’s go back to where this whole love affair started... which happened to be last week.

Last week I received a middle-aged, medium-sized, mixed-breed, tan dog to spay for my surgery lab.  There was nothing special about her - just an average looking mutt.  Then we put her up on the exam table and she blew me away.  She was basically the most well-behaved dog I’ve ever seen at the vet.  She let me poke and prod all over her, in a new strange environment, with 4 other dogs in the room and it didn’t even faze her.  She held so still while I drew blood from her jugular while other groups filed in and out of the prep room.  She was slowly winning me over.

Lab group struggles

Last Wednesday was surgery day!  We put her under anesthesia for surgery and began our non-sterile prep, which included shaving her belly for her surgery.  That was when we noticed a 3-inch scar in the exact location where I wanted to make my incision.  Because there was no way to determine if that scar was because of a previous spay we went ahead and took her into surgery.  Once in surgery, our suspicions were correct - she had no uterus, she had no ovaries, she had already been spayed. 

Lab group love!

As the surgeon of our group, it was my responsibility to stay with our pup until she was able to sit up on her own after surgery.  We came out of surgery before 5 and by 8 that night - she still was in no mood to sit up.  I don’t blame her - she’d just been cut open for no reason!  So we got to spend 3 hours snuggling on the floor while she just kept on winning me over.

Pupper-girl left to go back to the shelter yesterday and it was so sad.  I contacted the shelter to find out a little more about her and turns out she was brought in as a stray.  It explains why she is already house-broken, knows her basic commands, and is pretty much the most special dog in the world :)  She has not been “cat-tested” yet, but gets along great with other dogs.

Life is hard sometimes.  If Cole and I had a yard, that dog would be in it already.  However, living in a one-bedroom apartment with my “old-man” cat isn’t exactly conducive for a 40 pound dog :/  I’m not so worried about how the pup would feel about Bear, but more concerned about how Bear would feel about sharing his mom and his apartment with anyone else.  Bear tends to be a stress-vomiter :/

So right now we just wait in limbo.  I pray that someone kind will adopt this dog and give her the home she deserves.  She may be nothing special to look at, but she’s got the best personality.  If anyone is looking to give a middle-aged dog a good home to retire in... let me know :)

In other areas of my life, I’m sitting in Exotics right now learning about fungal diseases of birds.  I could think of about a hundred other things I’d rather be doing.  School has been going well.  Still busy, still overwhelming, but I’m surviving.

This weekend we are headed to Topeka to celebrate Cole’s birthday - tomorrow my best friend turns 25!  Can’t wait to spend the weekend with the in-laws just relaxing and enjoying a night or two off from school celebrating the Hubs!

That's all for now - Happy Tuesday!