It's been an eventful few days. Well. One day primarily. Yesterday. I mean, I had a wonderful time in Dallas over the weekend. But, thankfully, those days were mostly relaxing and enjoyable. Wonderful food, bouts of laughter while we sat around and reminisced on days when my sisters and I were younger. We seem to have established that I was the bossy and emotional one (what lovely characteristics!), Brit was the trouble-making yet sweet one (how does that work?), and Kris was always so calm that we all remember the very very few times she got upset at someone. It was fun to take a walk down memory lane. Laughter is such a wonderful thing.
But back to my eventful day yesterday. The day started with me calling Sabre's vet about an appointment first thing in the morning. His dew claw (which is the thumb-like nail) on his front left foot must have gotten snagged on something at some point because it was almost completely pulled out. Sabre kept licking it and when I compared it to his right paw, it looked drastically different. The vet said that Sabre would need to be dropped off since there was a chance they would need to completely remove the claw. And even though we knew Sabre would be the biggest baby in the world about staying at the vet's office all day, we knew it had to be done. We dropped him off around 9:00 am. He tried to make a few escapes, but that's why Travis held Sabre's leash. We got a call around 1:45 saying that he had indeed broken the claw alllll the way down and would require sedation and pain medicine in order for them to remove it. We could pick him up between 5:00 and 6:00. So I did. I picked him up as soon as I got off work. He was still a bit loopy and desperate to leave the vet's office. We got in the car and started our drive home.
About halfway home, Sabre started whining. Really really whining. I thought maybe he was just flustered from his not-so-pleasant day. Or the sedation was making the car ride seem strange. I don't know. But either way, he wouldn't calm down. Then, about two miles from our exit, I hear a nice heavy stream of liquid somewhere in the car. I look back to find Sabre peeing all over the back seat. While still whining. (Thankfully we have a seat cover on it. And we just found out yesterday that the seat cover is waterproof. Score!) The smell of urine filled the car, I started to feel queasy and tried rolling down the window (which scared Sabre to death--apparently the wind is too loud when you're driving at 65 miles per hour), he jumped up to the front seat because he didn't want to sit in his pee, the car started dinging every so often because there was someone in the passenger seat without a seatbelt on, I exited early (though how I managed to not crash the car is some sort of miracle!) and drove into a large gas station, walked Sabre over to a nice patch of grass, and he peed again for about five minutes straight. Apparently they don't give dogs bathroom breaks at the vet's office. Wish I'd known that. I called my husband and pleaded with him to come help me. I couldn't drive with Sabre in the front seat because the dinging was stressing me out; I couldn't hold onto Sabre's leash and pull out the pee-covered seat cover and certainly couldn't drive in a urine-scented car; and I was about to have an emotional breakdown in the parking lot of a gas station, while my still loopy dog seemed completely confused. Travis was my hero. He took an early dinner break and came to my rescue. He pulled out the seat cover, found that the pee had NOT soaked through to the actual car seat (celebrate!), and drove Sabre in his car. We put a sock over Sabre's injured paw because the stuff they used to stop the bleeding would stain any fabric it touched AND so he wouldn't lick it constantly. We probably need to get him an e-collar (aka, cone of shame), but we'll see how the sock goes for now.
When people are coming out of anesthesia, we're so thoroughly entertained. They say funny things and act weird. We record it and post it for everyone else to see. When dogs are coming out of sedation, they are just plain strange. All yesterday evening, Sabre was weird. His eyes were ridiculously dilated and he would seemingly forget what he was doing every three seconds. He would start walking and then just freeze. Literally, freeze. No movement whatsoever. He would stop mid stride. We could say his name, call him to us, anything... and he would just stay frozen. And because his eyes were so dilated, when he would look at us, he looked surprised. And scared. And Tatum wanted so desperately to play with him (she didn't like him being gone all day), but he was so loopy he didn't know what to do. It was a weird, weird evening. But we made it home by the grace of God.
And now it's a new day. I'm enjoying some nice quiet while the puppies take their morning nap.
This is from Papa - not me. "Cassie, this sounds like you when you had your wisdom teeth out but at least you didn't pee in the back seat." Ha Ha. I loved reading your story. It was a terrible experience and I'm so glad you did not wrech the car. I cannot imagine Sabre in the front seat and the seat belt dinger going off while you are going 65 miles an hour in a pee-filled car! Oh my - it's good you gave us the story to remember and laugh about it. See you Saturday. It's suppose to rain . . . . picnic still on??? :) Maybe it won't rain in Waco. We will have fun regardless. Love you!
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