Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Poor Little Pixie

Gosh I love that dog. Sadly, I barely think twice about her nowadays, since there is a much more loud and demanding little girl hanging out with us all the time. Except in the night when she awakens me by lumbering onto my pillow and collapsing heavily against my no-longer-sleeping head. Then I definitely think about her. Though at that point the thoughts are not so kindly.

Pixie loves the baby. One might say Pixie is obsessed with the baby. If the baby ever makes the slightest peep and Pixie is in another room, she races in like her tail is on fire and frantically licks all over the chubby face until it's comforted. If I take a moment before I race in with her, Pixie runs back and forth between us barking hysterically at my negligence, like Woman have you lost your mind the baby is CRYING!!!

Speaking of true negligence, I have stopped cutting Pixie's dew claws. Those are the little flappy alien toes attached by only a thread of skin that grow out of the middle of their leg. It's pretty weird that they even exist and seems like if she scratched them wrong they'd come right off, but alas they do not come off, and indeed actually sprout nails. At great effort on my part and great anxiety on her part, I have clipped them over the years, but I am extremely squeamish and she hates it so much and fights me so much and now that I have the baby all my reserves to do hard things are gone and the long story short is I haven't been able to bring myself to do it. And then I hadn't done it in so long I forgot about it. And then the other day she was maniacally licking one of the alien toes and I looked through all the hair and saw that the horrible little claw that has provided so much angst over the years had hit a new nasty low by growing so long it circled all the way around and was pushing into her skin and basically I am the worst Dog Mom ever.

SO I AM DONE. The dew claws are being removed entirely so I can sleep at night and not worry that when we get to heaven someday and Pixie can talk she'll turn to me and be like, Mom I cuddled your head on your pillow every single night and you let me be attacked by my dew claws?

Dave dropped the poor thing off and called to report that she went in the door with him very happy and waggy and excited and tried to socialize with another poor canine soul who also had no idea he was about to be abandoned there, and then when the leash was handed over to Scary Vet People and she was restrained from leaving with him, she realized what was going on and began shaking convulsively in terror, certain that she would not only never see us again but also become Scary Vet People's lunch.

My poor little baby. I feel sick thinking about her being so afraid. I am grateful Dave dropped her off, because doing so would have to go on the aforementioned list of Hard Things that I am just not up for yet.

We said a special prayer this morning for our little Pixie, who goes under both anesthesia and the knife sometime later today. She's getting her teeth cleaned and a special manicure too while they're at it. So in heaven I can be like, Yeah, I once let you be attacked by your dew claws, but at least I let you paint your toes.

8 comments:

haylie said...

Dear Jessica,

I think our blogs should be friends. Also, speaking of pets in heaven, I'm pretty sure our fish won't make it. I think he hates us. Everyone, really. And we're getting a kitten soon, which will doubtlessly only make things worse.

Mollie said...

Oh, poor Pixie. We will be thinking about her! Just got back from the vet myself, although it wasn't nearly as traumatic. Turns out, Lucy stinks because she gets in the water twice a day and her furry neck and skin fold basically never dry (because it's way more humid here). And it was mildewing! Gross! So she is shaved and bathed and clean and not smelly. And we are all happier for it!

Staci said...

Poor pixie. I hope it goes well.

Emily said...

poor poor pitters.... i'm glad you think that dogs will talk in heaven... i think so too! hope she's great. i can't wait for an update!

Courtney said...

You are not a bad dog Mom, and Pixie knows that you love her!! I just know it!!

And at least she is not threatened by or does not hate Annalise - 'cause that would be a whole lot worse than mild neglect.

Emily said...

Yikes! I know that sad feeling of neglect. And our neglect was actually worse, but we had a German Shepherd growing up and lived out in the desert of southern Idaho and it turned out our German Shepherd got all these little cheat grass thorns on the bottom of his paws, but we didn't notice they were there until he was limping! It was terrible, they had gone too deep by that point for us to remove them and we had to take him to the vet to have all these thorns removed out of his paws. That cheat grass is the most terrible evil plant. We also had an outdoor farm cat that died from an infection because of a cheat grass thorn. Another reason I like Portland a lot better!

Emily said...

Those cheat grass thorns are also extremely resilient, I was still finding them in things like backpacks and shoes over a year after I moved here.

Jessica said...

I agree Haylie! I am adding you to my link list! I've looked at your blog before- very funny. :)

And I'm sure your fish will make it. :)