She's Home

We picked her up this morning at the Missouri University vet school.  We have quite a list of do's and dont's. It's going to be a challenge because she still hurts. She seems happiest on a firm flat surface. She has one of those cone type collars they said to prevent her from licking her stitches. I think it was also to prevent her from biting her handlers. Move her the wrong way and she hurts instantly. I quickly learned to support her belly when moving her. She had slipped off her pillow on the way home and was yelping in pain when Gretchen tried moving her. She would have bitten her again had it not been for the collar.

Moving her out of the van was a two person operation. She forgot that she hurts and tried jumping out of the van like she always does to go bark and pee. Restraining her caused her pain.I normally walk with a cane. When I picked Dolly up out of Gretchen's  lap she was not hurting. I had one hand under her belly and one on her chest. I said to hell with the cane because our dog was not hurting and I walked all the way inside the house with her in that position.

We purchased a rolling den for her at Petco. I need to go to Petco.com to see if they have belly slings for her. if I can't find them there I will go to Dr's Foster and Smith.com to see if they can be purchased there. MU's  Vet Ortho department would have provided one but they are shut down until mid January for New Years break and staff changes. I hope that their entire department is never affected by budget cuts because I am very (and I do mean very) impressed with them.

I gotta take a little time here to praise MU's vet clinic. Their discharge procedure is very good. Better than some hospitals for humans. Kristin our student was very good at breaking down what we needed to do at home with Dolly to where we could understand it and she was backed up very nicely by her instructor who was there to observe. When we told her she was good at it she stated that it was because she has good teachers. Had I thought of it I would have told her you have to be a good student also to accept the teachings of a good instructor.

Dolly was sedated when we picked her up. She was still able to wag her tail when she saw us and she had that I'm happy to see you look in her eyes. You can't miss that look. Right now she is in her crate sleeping. She will occasionally look up to see if I am still sitting here. I suspect that I won't be going much of anywhere in the next few weeks. If it upsets her to where she hurts if I am gone then so be it I will stay.

Our cats were alarmed at her return. They immediately spotted the cone collar and it was like OMG what did those humans do to that dog? They were very curious about the crate. Dolly started evil eyeing them so I shoo'd them away. After a few minutes they started treating it like it's been here for years. They will probably try jumping on it later and if it agitates Dolly they will learn to stay off. Dolly seemed very pleased that I had shoo'd them away. She does not like two of them and the third she seems to tolerate well. Probably because that one has never swatted her with claws out that i know of.

This whole thing is going to take some adjusting for all of us. What I am afraid of is dolly's personality might change after this is all over with. If she still has pain it will. I know my own personality changed over a period of years due to being disabled. I used to find humor in bad situations. I no longer do that. It was a  coping mechanism from work. It helps me to make other people laugh especially if the person who laughs is in a bad situation.

Surgery Today

Dolly had her surgery today. She had pieces of bone fragment that had moved away from the fracture area. They had to put in two plates and do a bone graft. I figured surgery would be more complicated once they got in there. I usually plan for the worst and hope for the best. I was hoping my bad premonition would not be true but such was not the case.

I had a bad premonition about taking Dolly with me on our frequent visits to Kansas City.  So what I did was just keep an extra close eye on her and made sure she stayed out of trouble.  She's with me on car trips a lot and usually obeys me. I keep her on a leash when out of the car. I thought she was safe in my son's apartment. I had to go out to move my truck. I should have taken her with me. I was out in the parking lot when the doors fell and I can still hear her cries of pain. It keeps playing over and over in my head.

I know about broken bone pain. Back in 1978 I had compression fractures to several vertebrae in my back. A broken bone in my knee courtesy of the flood in October 1986 along with other actually minor incidents. Drugs do not take care of broken bone pain. You hurt and you are doped up at the same time.
Knowing this makes me mourn for Dolly. I'm afraid it will change her personality.

Dolly may be home in a couple of days. I miss her terribly. The cats make little noises and I will think it's her. It upsets my family to see me act this way so I have been keeping it hid more.I need to cut to cut this behavior out and I will. I can't stand the sight of a crying man. I equate it with weakness.

Worse than we thought

Dolly had a painful night.I slept in the recliner to give my wife more room to be with her during the night. She slept on our bed. If it can be called sleeping. We ran her over to Horton Animal Hospital's Fourm facility. They had a bit different take on her X-rays.  They got us in to MU's vet school. They also did not charge us for the visit God bless them.

Had to use the GPS to find the vet school. This time it put me in the general vicinity of the school. Had to do some hunting to find it but not near as bad as yesterday.

I'm impressed with the vet school but that does not mean I got good news. Turns out Dolly has several broken bones. Surgery will cost about $3000. Probably more. In the past any animal I've had that required this amount of work was put to sleep. I can't do that with Dolly. She did not ask to have doors dropped on her. She was merely being a Dachshund.


This will run us out of money plus some. I have a small coin collection I can sell to pay for it. My son right now is fussing at us because we have not eaten since yesterday morning and then it was just a snack. I don't want to eat, food can go to hell right now as far as I am concerned. Right now if the fridge and the freezer was empty I would not care a whit.

A broken hip

We took Dolly with us to move my son back from Kansas City. Terrible mistake. She'd been safer here by herself at home. In the process of moving some heavy doors fell on Dolly breaking her hip.

So here we were 3 hours from home and no clue as to who to take her to for emergency care.  We found one in a phone book programmed the address in the Goddamned GPS and it sent us to a group of residential homes. Tried searching for a vets office on it and the only ones who showed up on it were 275 miles away.

So here I am cluelessly driving around in rush hour traffic with a hurting dog desperately looking for any kind of help. By accident I spotted Sue's Pet Spa in Overland Park KS. I flew in there and asked who they reccomended for a vet. They sent me to Foster's Animal Hospital on Metcalf Ave.

I'd shut my emotions off up until we got to the vets office. I'm good at that at least. In an emergency at work I trained myself to do that. I started bawling like a baby when i got her to safety. Foster's is a darn good place. They took her right in X-rayed her and showed me the broken hip. it's not badly broken but bad enough. They gave us some pain pills and told me to get her to an Oerthapeadic vet tommorrow. It turns out her Daughter is a student at MU's vet school.

When we attempted to leave KC poor Dolly bit gretchen several times when she attempted to put her in the truck. She was laying there in the seat and would not let anybody touch her but she still had to be moved. I walked up to her and slid my hand under her hips. She started to bite me but then when she saw it was me she stopped. It was like " I know he's not going to hurt me bad."

It was not a good trip home. Went by fast though thank God.

I did OK until I got home. When she saw she was home she tried moving and could not. She tried to scratch and cried out in pain. She wanted to go outside and bark but hurt too bad. It's killing my soul to see her hurt. I had a good long cry.

She won't take water. she has blood in her urine.  In my mind I see her when she was healthy giving me those long loving looks and it kills me because we were the ones who hurt her. We were all careless and focused on getting my son out of there before the deadline and while we had help there to get it done. I can't stand this, I can't stand to see her hurt. I wish it was me instead. How can you tell an actyive dog that she has to lie still for six weeks. She will never understand. 

Winter

I wonder if it is typical for Dachshunds to hate cold weather? If I were to judge by Dolly I'd say the answer is a definite yes. She stays inside most of the day. She holds off on doing her business until she can no longer stand it. She sleeps a lot and on really cold days she will burrow underneath the blankets on our bed and sleep there.

If she hears something going on outside that she does not like she will bark but it's a halfhearted bark. It's like she does not really want to go outside to bark at the offending party. In warmer times there is no hesitation. She would let out one "Burf" and then charge to the front door where a barking frenzy would start. In the winter she may let out two or three "Burf's" before she walks slowly to the front door.

She's happy if I go outside but shes only happy for so long. If I am out for what she considers too long she will start her little routine of trying to get me to go back in. This routine is hard to put to words. She does not really do that much except for stand there and look at me anxiously. If I say "Lets go in Dolly" she will do her little happy dance and head for the backdoor of the house. Once in we run to the bedroom and burrow under the blanket.

She does get bored with the bed. When this happens she will perch on my shoulders while I am in my recliner or she will go rest on my sons bed where if the blinds are up she has a commanding view of the front yard through that huge antique window.

For Dolly's sake I hope this winter goes by fast.

I've Changed the Title of this Blog.

I'm also changing how I present the info. I have found that while describing Dachshund traits I was telling stories about Dolly the Dachshund. I was also in the aggravating habit of repeating myself...well at least it is aggravating to me.  With the new way I think I can do this in a humorous way and maybe let any of my accidental readers learn a little along the way. I also realized that with the old way I was making Dolly sound like a bad dog. No dog is perfect but Dolly comes close. I love her more than any other dog I've known, even my very first dog.

  Today I feel like talking about the relationship between a Dachshund owner and their dog. Dachshunds really do prefer to be around their owners all day. It's not just Dolly, it's something that I have repeatedly seen on the web in my research on Dachshunds. That fact is why Dolly chose to stay with me and my wife.  It's a long story as to why she is with us now and also tells about a Dachshunds stubbornness. I'm going to keep it short. My wife and I are retired. I'm disabled too but we both like to go out in the yard all day during the summer. Dolly hated us at first but after about a month of barking decided that she needed to be friendly to us. Her owners both worked and had two young girls.  I thought it was a perfect situation for a Doxie to have young owners with two kids to play with.

  They kept Dolly in their house while they were gone. When they returned they let her out. At first she'd come out and bark at us. Later she would come out and if she saw us in the garden she would do her ' Happy Run' over into our yard to see us. To me one of the most beautiful sights there is is to see a Miniature Long Hair Dachshund doing their 'Happy Run'. Eventually she was spending more time with us than she was them. Please keep in mind that my original intent was to just stop Dolly from barking at us.

  The last person in our house to be befriended was my son. That took a full three months. She hated him so bad that if she came across where he had walked barefoot in the yard she would bark at his footprints. I put an end to this one day. Dolly was out so I had my son set down by me and called her. She happy ran up to me and I had my son give her some dog treats. Then she was like " Oh crap... he belongs here!" and it was instant friendship. He likes his computers and was not outside as much as us.

  That was a great summer for us. The best since I stopped working. I lost 80 pounds. If we were not outside Dolly would bark until we came out. There was a rainy period of two days when we stayed inside. At the end of the second day my son stepped out and a very worried Dolly came exploding in to come check on us. Cats were running in every direction on the compass in terror. Of course Dolly was happy to see we were OK.

  That fall our neighbors situation changed. The husband moved out and divorce proceedings began. My wife and I were completely surprised. Our neighbors business is none of ours. As soon as that happened Dolly started acting as if she were sad and spent even more time with us. It was at that time that she got it in her head that my wife and I were going to be her new owners.  There was one day Dolly was inside their house and we were out. I saw her in the window looking at us. I always tried to be quiet when this happened and I would try to do my work in an area where she could not see me. If she knew I was out and she was locked inside she would do this long sad howl. I don't know who felt worse me or her. Anyhow... on that day I looked up to see Dolly doing her happy run to me. I noticed that there seemed to be a bit of strutting in her run too if that's even possible. I looked up at the window that I had seen her in and there was this Dachshund shaped hole in the screen. Almost like what you would see in a Road Runner/ Wiley E. Coyote cartoon.

  Dolly got to where she refused to stay at her house. Any opportunity to escape that presented itself was taken. One cold night she started scratching and whining at our front door. I had been sending her back home and she always listened but not that night. I broke down and let her in. The cats hated it, my wife and I loved it. Of course Dolly loved it too. She was on perfect behavior for us for a long time after that. In her way I believe she was selling the idea of her staying with us to us. She has been with us for over a year now. Both of our neighbors said it was OK.

  So my dear readers (if there are any LOL) if you are deciding whether or not you want to own a Dachshund please keep my little story in mind here. Doxies get sad and lonely when they are not with their humans. Dolly still loves my neighbor. I've known her long enough now that I can tell by how she still looks at them. Also readers keep my story in mind as to how stubborn a Dachshund can be. I tried daily to prevent her from staying with us and in the end I lost that battle. OH..... yes I could have ran her off permanetly but to do that I would have had to abuse her. If I had to have done that I would have been very depressed afterward. I mean how can you run a dog off that you have never had to say GIT to ? Dolly is so intelligent that she knows when to not be in my way and to know when she is bugging me. She knows my habits and what I am going to do before I even know I am going to do it.

  Yes readers dachshunds are stubborn, and they require attention but in our case Dolly does it in such a way that I usually forgive her instantly. I don't know what we would do without her.  She makes us laugh at least once per day.

Dachshunds are Jealous

A Dachshund can be jealous of anything they believe will come between them and their owners.

I like to read a little bit before I go to bed at night. Dolly will come up and start giving the book an evil look. She will sit and stare for a bit then she will walk up to my face and stand on it while licking my forehead. if I put the book down she runs off ready to play. I put a stop to it by playing with her before I read. I enjoy the game we play anyway. If I am in my recliner and using my laptop she will start staring at it. She has not figured out a foolproof way of diverting me from it but I can tell she's jealous.She only does this when the weather is nice and she's trying to get me to go outside with her.  She will not do it at night because it's my habit to get on it after we have been outside. Morning is not OK in her well ordered little world.

If I give the cats too much attention she gets slightly jealous. I don't worry about ignoring them because when they feel deprived they will force themselves on you. I have cats on or near me 24/7 except when I am outside. Two of the three are scared to go out. When Misty is out she only wants a minute or two of attention from me and it does not bother Dolly. I do use the jealousy factor to my benefit.  Before Dolly the cats were compelled to sleep on me at bedtime.  I'd wake up at night from pain in my lower legs caused by Calley who likes to sleep on my shins putting all her weight on one small spot. Or I might wake up to find Misty on my chest. I have problems with breathing at night and use a CPAP machine. A cat on your chest does not help at all. You run them off they come right back after you go back to sleep. Dolly keeps them ran off.

I don't worry about her hurting them. I worry about them hurting her. Those cats used to run big dogs out of our yard. Calley once tried keeping our lab from eating his food and she was just a kitten at the time. The cats will not attack Dolly out of the clear blue because of our angry reactions when they do. My son once accidentally stepped on Dolly's tail causing her to yelp in pain. At the same time there was an explosion of scared cats trying to get away from the area in fear of being blamed.


Speaking of dogs... We have leash laws but they are not enforced. Everybody lets their dogs run loose. Occasionally dogs will see us and try to come over for attention.  Whether they get the attention or not depends on Dolly's mood. I have seen her stand there and give those dogs the same look she gives my books at night. She stands there head erect and tail up. The dogs see this and they usually go the other way.  Even huge dogs do this. Had I not seen this for myself I would not have believed it or I would believe the big dog was timid. These dogs do not walk away in fear. They show no signs of it. It's like they are saying "Well...OK...I'll stay away if you say so... It makes no difference to me."


Dachshunds are funny little dogs. dolly makes me laugh at least twice a day.



 

Dachshunds are Disobedient

Dachshunds can be disobedient. BUT you can expect obedience in ways you never expect.

Ours loves car trips. The longer the better. I always carry a harness and leash with me.  When my wife and son has her on the leash she lunges and expects them to run with her. When I have her on the leash her behavior is different. I am disabled and cannot move fast. With me she moves slowly and occasionally stops to let me catch up.

What is really funny is when she is walking with me she struts. Her head is up and has a proud bearing and the tail is up too sometimes showing it's little flag of hair at the end.  It's like she is saying "Look here people, look at me!" "I'm with my human who I chose as my owner and I am proud of it !"

This Doxie has given me many a good laugh. When we first became aquainted if she would hear me laughing about something she would come to me to see what I was laughing about. She stopped doing that after she moved in with us but I still have the memories.