A few weeks ago Sarah had an ear infection (that cost me a punch in the stomach sum), so the vet gave me a bottle of ear wash to give her every week, to help prevent further ear infections. I have to sneak attack her to squirt that stuff in her ears, and then hold her down while she tries to run away. As soon as I have massaged it into her ear completely, I let her go. She runs off and shakes her ears a million times, rolls on her back, and thrashes around and grunts, before high tailing it as far away from me as possible. But then I just have to sneak attack her again, to get her other ear. So the routine repeats, but after the second time around she now spends the rest of the afternoon actively avoiding me.
She doesn't care that I do all this for her own good, she just thinks I'm evil, and she needs to punish me for my evilness.The punishment works because I hate when anyone is unhappy with me, even my dog. So I was reading on the internet, and it suggested that I warm the ear wash before putting it in the ears, because the coldness can really startle the dog. We have no heat in the house, it is Winter, so I figured the medicine had been frigid. So today when I went to clean her ears, I decided I would try warming it first. At first I was going to microwave it. But that sounded like a recipe for disaster. Who knows what chemicals are in that stuff? So instead I put it in a hot water bath on the stove. You know like you would do with a baby bottle? I spent 20 minutes (on a very busy day) heating up medicine for Sarah, and testing it on my hand to make sure it was the right tempature. Not to hot, not to cold, I'm like a Sainted Goldilocks. This is when I realized I might be a little too wrapped up in my dog..
Sarah acted pretty much the same way she did when I didn't heat up the medicine. But the act of doing it made me feel less guilty. So I will continue to heat the medicine, just to make myself feel like a better person. Yes, I may love my dog a little too much.
This brought back so many memories. I had a Westie and had to do the same thing because of ear problems. He reacted exactly the same way as Sarah does when I put the ear medicine in his ears. It must be a dog thing.
ReplyDeleteThe picture is perfect for this post!! And yes, she is too PRECIOUS!!! I think I would love her too much too. :)
She is so very cute and certainly worth all that trouble with the ears. Have you tried giving her a treat before and after the application.And you are a good mom to do all that. I had to give one of my cats pills and she knew what time, and she would hide every time. But she got better eventually.
ReplyDeleteHi Britt, first time posting here and I first want to say how much I relate to you and so enjoy your blog. I have two very beloved cats and personally I don't think anyone can love an animal "too much". I think others who don't have loved furbabies might label as a bit demented, but that's their problem! I think that's where we pick up our labels of ourselves such as "loving a pet too much." You're a wonderful mommy and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
ReplyDeleteOh my god you crack me up. I can just see you putting the medicine on your arm and testing it like a baby's bottle! :-)
ReplyDeleteMatch and I are the same way with Monkey. We talk to him, we refer to ourselves as mommy and daddy, when he's bad he goes in "time out". He has been developing a little hot spot on his leg and we were clucking over him like mother hens! Lol. It's ok, dogs are our babies in training!
My dog is so precious that we named her Precious lol xoxo
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