Her second one in three days.
The first one was to get her heartworm meds and to get her all checked out so we could sign up for pet insurance, which has been a big help with Teddy over the last couple of years. She was her wiggly, friendly self with everyone, lots of tail wags and kisses. Aussie is a very tolerant girl.
She's also turned out to be quite a bit more energetic than she was when we took her out of the shelter to the river or when we first had her home with us. I think she must have been emotionally exhausted from being at the shelter because she's much different these days.
In playgroups at the shelter, she was a rockstar. She got along with everyone and did a great job of interacting with the other dogs. She's terrific with Teddy at home too, and they're good at taking a break from playing before things get out of hand.
But she's suddenly decided that if she sees another dog on a leash and they are within about five feet of her that she needs to go completely nuts and try to get to them. Lunging and craziness ensue.
She also thinks that if she's off leash and sees a dog that the best thing to do is run right up to them, at full speed, without slowing down when she reaches them. And Aussie runs VERY fast.
As you can imagine, this does not go over very well with the dog she's greeting. Not at all.
In addition to greeting dogs will full force exuberance, she also has determined that she needs to greet new humans the same way. First the run at full speed, and then a big leap.
Goodness Aussie, what's up with that?
No more off leash greetings. And lots of leash work ahead of us with passing other dogs to remind her of her manners.
Can you see where this vet story is going yet?
The day after her checkup, we took her to Elk Grove Park, where there is a little dog park that is typically empty. That morning there was just one calm older lab and his human, playing ball. Aussie ran over, at full throttle. Dax the lab didn't like that so much. He growled at her and they both jumped up in the air at each other. It lasted about half a second and then they both sniffed butts and walked away. We headed her off and took her around the perimeter of the dog park where she happily checked out all the delicious smells. Until she made a run for Dax's (elderly!) owner and jumped on him.
Leash on, out of park. Lots of apologies. Major embarrassment.
That's when we noticed the gash in Aussie's side. Actually, the two gashes.
They didn't seem so bad at first but after getting home we looked closely and decided to call the vet. Aussie acted like nothing had happened; I don't even think she had noticed yet.
After sharing some phone pics of the wound, our vet thought it could wait until Monday, or might heal on it's own. But after a night of her being restless and me having to stop her from licking herself numerous times while we were supposed to be sleeping, and then her being very lethargic this morning and it looking worse, we ended up at the vet at 8:00 am.
Anesthesia and stitches. $425.
I'm hoping that the no-waiting-period-if-you-sign-up-for-pet-insurance-within-24-hours is a real thing. Fingers crossed.
Aussie now has a big shaved square on her side with some ugly looking stitches. And did I mention the still oozing blood? Luckily, she's feeling much better and ate her dinner like a champ. Right now she's wearing a striped T-shirt so she doesn't pester the wounds and sleeping next to me on the bed. I think she's happy to be home.
While she was at the vet, we had a handyman at our house.
He built a three foot extension above our back fence.
Why, you ask?
Because our sweet girl had enough of the neighbors little yapping dogs last week and jumped OVER our fence, into their yard.
Now, we know Aussie is a sweetie and likes other dogs. But all the neighbor saw was a pit bull barking and leaping over the fence at his little Pomeranian.
He was not amused.
Cost of fence extension? $480.
I'm pretty sure the Pet Insurance will not be covering that.
Aussie, though?
Our girl is priceless.
