Category: Dogs

a doodle milestone

whbeebe

Annie is now between five and six months. We took her to the vet to get her fixed. As much as I love having a Doodle, I’m not the kind of person who should be breeding them. So we had Annie fixed. Annie has a sister from the litter who will be bred, but not until the sister is two years old.

On Annie’s first day she was wearing the typically stiff plastic cone to keep her from licking the incision. On day two of recovery we got her the more fashionable, and far more comfortable, inflatable blue collar you see her in. I photographed her on Thursday wearing it. By Friday it was fully deflated because Annie twisted the collar around and chewed off the inflation valve. By that time the incision was pretty much healed anyway. Annie was leaping and running around the back yard with Ruby in hot pursuit. I attribute Annie’s quick healing to the use of surgical adhesive rather than stitches. Unless you look very closely you can barely see the incision, and this is less than a week after the operation.

She looks better now anyway. Friday morning I gave her a bath with Furry Couture dog bubble bath, then gave her a good drying with a big, thick towel. She loved it.

and yet life goes on – ruby and annie

whbeebe

Three weeks after loosing Max, we have Dreamboat Annie the Labradoodle and a much happier Ruby Tuesday. Or as Annie’s known informally, the wooly doodle. Or Annie-Banannie. She came to live with us a week after Max passed. She’s now five months. As can be seen in the back of mom’s Prius, they’re both pretty tight as far as canine buddies go.

She and Ruby have gotten used to one another and now play pretty heavily together. Tug-of-war, chase, dragon fights (where they play-mouth one another and make grunting sounds), and other doggish activities. Long walks every evening are now de rigueur once again. When they walk they walk together out front at a rapid pace. It’s been years since Max wanted to walk with any kind of pace and side-by-side out front with Ruby. Ruby is happy and I think pretty much over loosing Max.

As for me, it’s more complex. I have a lot of digital photos of the same period when Ruby first came to live with Max, at about the same age as Ruby is now. Being human my memories are a lot sharper, especially when helped by what I photographed and wrote about back then. Having Annie triggers an odd mixture of simultaneous pleasure in having her here while still feeling the pain of Max’s loss.

Life is neither simple nor slow. Annie’s introduction into, and interaction with, the household can’t be ignored while I mope around feeling sorry. It’s not fair to anyone, least of all little Annie.

Obviously there’s more to come. I just need to sit down and gather my thoughts into coherent sentences and paragraphs.