If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
– Frank Clark (www.brainyquote.com)
A couple days since ear surgery on Wednesday, Dexter is getting a little better with the cone around his head. On walks he has to work a little harder to get his snout into the grass or dirt. (the collar gives him about half an inch between edge and tip of his nose). At home, After the first tweaks in the collar catching on furniture, doors and at the sliding glass door, (he obviously would not navigate the doggie partition) he doesn’t rush about to answer a neighbor’s bark. As he doesn’t see well things beside him, he seems to rely on a landmark. Dexter sticks right with whichever person is nearest the kitchen.
A spoonful of sugar helped Mary Poppins, but giving Dexter pills and the liquid medication we are betting on meat. While groggy the evening we brought him home, he sucked down chicken and antibiotic right off. A day later, he swished the pill around. Friday, the third morning, mom-lady has used chicken bits, peanut butter and medicine mixed in canned food to get past Dexter’s discriminating palate. Today Sheri spoon-fed him! But we may have a standby. As the mixture dripped from spoon onto tile, Dexter licked it all up! And it’s about time to mop the kitchen anyway. Whatever. He took the medication. Dexter is milking the extra loving for all it’s worth. He practices that cute look in the cone.
Comet, on the other hand, has fewer difficulties to overcome. His ear is not bandaged. He is not wearing a cone. Maybe he is wondering why Dexter is getting special treatment. We stop him from licking the little bowl we feed Dexter from this week. Why won’t we give him “medication”? Last year, Comet was getting extra attention as he was the recent arrival. He still had issues with trash cans and food in plastic wrappers – getting into them when we weren’t diligent about putting them away. (We still don’t leave a trash can in the kitchen when we leave for the day.)
I am learning a lot from a couple dogs, the holidays, and about myself as this year is in the last week. Just like my minister spoke on, to the men, in the week before Christmas. I became lazy. I wanted, or rather, this was supposed to be a me-time. Time to slouch. Putter around the garage. Eat. And little else. That’s why God gave me dogs after having grown-up children. I need some difficulties to overcome to keep me on the right path.
It's a Dog's Life 