1. I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I am organizing a group of my friends to join Austin Angels as a Love Box group. Our Love Box group will walk alongside a foster family in our area to provide support as they love on some kids in the foster care system. We had our training on Monday night and we are ready to get involved! I am so hopeful that we can be a blessing! More to come on this outstanding adventure!
2. Tuesday, I met with Chip and his high school guidance counselor to discuss his class schedule for his last two years of high school. My baby only has two more years of high school left. Isn't that ridiculous? The answer is YES. It is so ridiculous. I think we need to hold him back. Can he repeat third grade? That was a sweet age.
3. Tuesday night I went with some of my girls to see Jen Hatmaker and Nicole Nordemon in the Mess and Moxie tour! It was amazing! A huge room full of women talking about Jesus and community and supporting each other and loving your neighbor and elephants and taking time to heal. Sensational! Then add in the music, that was beautiful and told story after story that ripped my heart open. There is much more for me to share about this, but for now just know I got filled up on Tuesday night and I also cried. Kinda hard. I seem to do that a lot! But I don't mind it a bit. It was great!
4. Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday....that was just yesterday, but it was the day I had to take the TWDITW back to the vet. Y'all it was awful. I know I will not be able to describe exactly how horrible it was, but I am sure going to try. Every word of this is true.
To set the stage, let's start about three hours before the actual appointment. After the last terrible visit to the vet, she recommended that we give Cooper a tranquilizer so he would be a little more relaxed on his next visit. I was armed with some pills and administered them exactly two and half hours before his appointment. I was so worried that he would be too relaxed (or dead) that he would not be able to walk out to the car or jump his 82 pound body up in the way back. Now, even typing that sentence makes me laugh out loud for what actually transpired. The two hours passed and he went from like a 10 to a 9.5. He was still very much able to walk out to the car and also excitedly bark and twirl in circles in the driveway anxious to jump on in.
On the drive to the vet, he didn't bark as much as usual which I thought might be because of the drugs, but turns out that instead of barking he was systematically trying to eat through the TechGuard mat in the trunk. In the two mile drive from my house to the vet, he was able to chew and destroy two edges and start a quarter size hole straight through that sturdy plastic liner that has held up in my car for over seven years. He is a jerk.
We got to the vet and I took him on back to the exam room. The tech was ready, remembered our last visit and was talking softly and not being excitable at all. I had some high value snacks for her to feed him and that went great. Very nice and friendly. Then the vet came in and again, all smiles and tail wagging as long as she was across the room and he was not near her.
Sadly, vets need to touch dogs to exam them. They have to check their ears and listen to their heart and rub down their body and stomach looking for any abnormalities or injuries. Also, my boy needed some shots. We decided to muzzle him before any kind of exam started. I was able to put his soft muzzle on him pretty well with the lure of the treat. He wasn't happy, but damn he loves treats. The tech was holding him and the vet put the stethoscope on his chest and he lost his mind. He backed into a corner and they could not get him to move out. They bravely went into the corner with him, talking softly, telling him everything they were going to do even though he could not have cared less. The three of them were a tangle of human and dog parts and soft crooning and angry growling and snarling. Next thing I know, he is out of the muzzle and spit and fury are everywhere. Thankfully, no one got bit by the raging lunatic that is my dog and we got him back under control quickly. I felt horrible.
Then we muzzled him again. With two muzzles. It was hard to do because in addition to being a jerk who eats your expensive TechGuard mats, Cooper is really, really smart. Too smart. He did not want that muzzle on again. But treats. He can't resist. Same situation. He is thrashing and bucking and carrying on something fierce and those two brave women had him managed. They were able to give him the shots but suddenly he violently protested again and was out of two muzzles and on the offensive. I was looking around for a blow dart that could bring down an elephant that I could hit him with. It didn't end up requiring a blow dart, but other vets came in to see if everyone was alright and if any additional hands were needed. By this time the jerk face is standing next to me smiling like "Mom, did you see that? I got away from two of them!"
The vet said she wanted to take him to the back and at least have him get on the scale for her so that his last memory would not be of the wrestling, pinning, sticking with a needle situation they had just endured. She was also going to try to get a blood draw if he was calm for it.
She took him out by his leash with no muzzle and it wasn't too long before I heard terrible gnashing, growling, barking. Picture me in the little waiting room with my hands over my ears pacing the floor. The armpits of the t-shirt I was wearing were absolutely drenched. It was a high stress moment. The idea that my pet was the one making those horrible sounds and being so aggressive is an awful feeling. Pets aren't supposed to do that!
Turns out, Cooper protested the scale pretty spastically and somehow got out of his harness. He has never gotten out of his harness. Ever. I don't know if he is canine Houdini or what! So, he is loose in the vet with no muzzle and no leash. I think people were scared and rightly so. They managed to gather him back up with a slip leash over his head and even got him back into his harness, which is when I think all the horrible sounds were happening. Eventually he calmed down enough that they could get his blood drawn.
They all came back disheveled, sweaty and exhausted. It was a workout and not the final relaxing experience she wanted him to have. He sat down calmly next to me with his tongue hanging down to his feet while the vet and I talked about his behavior.
She said she felt sorry for him because she knew his aggression was out of fear. She said he had plenty of opportunity to bite her, but she was starting to believe he was more bark than bite - although she did not trust him at all. He most certainly is not as aggressive to me as he was at the vet, but he is unpredictable and will snap and bite out of the blue. I have learned over the last year all the places I am allowed to touch Coop and where he HATES to be touched. Basically, I can touch his head, ears, neck and chest area and way back at the top of his tail. He loves a good butt scratch. Just don't let your hand linger too long or start going down his back haunches. That is off limits.
We are going to start him on a daily dose of Prozac to see if we can get his chemical imbalance evened out and improve his behavior. Hopefully, this will be a positive aid that will help him chill out and live a more peaceful life. If they don't work for him, maybe I will take them for myself. I will keep you posted.
As a footnote, he continued his destruction of the TechGuard mat on the short drive home. It should be completely shredded in a couple of weeks. Wonder if he will chew his way through the carpet and metal of the car next?
5. Let's leave this post on a more positive note so Bob and Lana don't send a rescue unit to the house to remove the ferocious beast I am living with! Almost every day when Chip gets home from school we have a quick reunion howling session in the kitchen with TWDITW. It is a way to celebrate our little pack of three being back together. Cooper will not join in if just one of his people starts howling. It must be both me and Chip. So, apparently a pack must be more than two. Enjoy this short clip of our mutt celebrating his pack. It think he really does love us!
Hope your week is going great!
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