This is my confession. You'd better read the entire thing, because it may be my last blog ever, unless they let you blog from The Big House...The Pokey...Up the River...
But, let me tell you the entire story, from the beginning...
The above picture is the life my dogs lead normally. Pampered. Spoiled. Good looking (well, that may be debatable) City Dogs. Pip's main redeeming feature is that she is exuberant. Always happy. Sparky's is that she loves you. And wants to breathe your air.
Friday, October 2 looked like it was going to be a great day...and it was! In the morning Grant and my sweet Patootie came to spend the day. Just the two of them. Grant had to watch a runner at Pioneer's Park and Angela, being 8 months pregnant, elected to stay home with Carter. I had the windows open, so could hear their doors closing when they got here. Then I heard the sweetest thing EVER... "I'm here!!" And my little mermaid girl came running up to the door. I loved it!
(Carter wasn't here, but I couldn't pass up a chance to put both their adorable pictures up here.
They are just the cutest ever!!)
After a lunch with Gramps, we played Barbies (well, she played with the Ariel Barbies, I dressed the rest of the sad little pile of Barbies Lex had left behind so many years ago.) Lex didn't really want to part with any of her Barbies, but finally gave me 6 or 7 for visitors. I didn't remember, until I was dressing them, that she left me all the Barbies who had chewed hands or really rat nest hair or other deformities! But, I dressed them all, so now they sit in their box looking rather snappy.
After the Mermaid left (who said, at one time, "I'm a mermaid. You can call me Payton.") I had just a little time until Luke came over. YAY! What a great day it was! I didn't tell him Grant was in town so right before supper Grant came and rang the doorbell and we had Luke answer it. They have always had a special bond--probably because Grant has the mentality of a 10-year-old boy!! :)
After supper Luke, Loy, and I played Legos. Which means that Loy built a cool structure and Luke kept saying "Can I decorate it now? Is it ready to decorate?" And I sorted Legos and put all the 2 x 3 tiles together and all the 2 x 2 tiles all together and...well, you get the picture. Loy loves the building and creating. Luke, the style angle. And I'm the behind the scenes organizer.
On Saturday, after their traditional Donut Day, Luke and I headed to the Loess Hills, which are north of Council Bluffs, with the dogs. We were going to spend the day out at Lex and Corey's 45 acres, 45 acres of totally undeveloped land. Luke and I had packed a cooler with hot dogs and s'mores fixings and some nutritional food as well.
I told you their land was undeveloped. This is what it looks like. And you just hike through the weeds. Corey refused to travel with a machete to make my path clear, can you believe it?
Luke with a walking stick on his arm. He thought that was pretty cool-
-and it was. God is so creative, isn't He?
We had a great time. Luke was kind of overwhelmed at first about how he could just roam wherever he wanted. He had a walkie talkie and we kept tabs on him, but he could explore to his hearts content. And the dogs? Well, the dogs were having the BEST DAY OF THEIR LITTLE DOGGIE LIVES!!! Running wild, sniffing, pooping wherever they wanted (well, it had to be said). Sometimes we couldn't see them and then we'd notice the weeds moving and then a little furry head would pop out. This was the life they felt they were born to lead.
My fluffy dogs. With long ear hair and goofy tails and bows in their ears from their last grooming. City dogs.
They came back and had hundreds of little burrs stuck in their fur. Not the kind that just kill you when you touch them, but smaller, less hurtful things. Hundreds. Towards the end of the afternoon Corey and Luke were 4-wheeling and Lex and I sat at the fire pit and pulled burrs from their bodies. (They didn't like us getting near their legs or faces.)
My plan for the day had been to come back to Lincoln, drop Luke off at home, watch the rest of the Husker game, and rest and relax. Corey had me hiking some pretty steep mountains...OK, hills...and I was tired to the bone. Instead Loy and I sat and pulled burrs while watching the game.
We had their bodies completely cleared and worked on their legs and were doing really well. We tried the ears and tails but they were just a big jumble of burrs and fur. Kind of looked like dreadlocks for dogs. I decided to sacrifice the cute little doggie cuts and just cut the burrs out.
Carefully, ever so carefully, I hacked away at the burrs. Butchering their good looks. Their floofy tails now look like rat tails. Their ears uneven and scraggly.
But, here's the confession part, when I went back to even up Sparky's ears I nicked her ear and the poor baby yelped and ran. I looked at it and didn't see blood, so let her go. I felt terrible!!!
I still had to clip Pip, so I was even more careful. And I nicked her ear too, but not as badly. My girls were looking at me with those beady brown eyes with accusation. "We trusted you and you hurt us."
I herded them into the bathroom to give them baths. When Sparky came in she was covered in blood! I got her in the tub and sat there applying pressure to her little flappy ear. After awhile it stopped bleeding, so I bathed her. Ear was still not bleeding. I let her go and she ran out to Loy while I bathed Pip. When I finally got Pip out to the living room too I noticed that Sparky was all bloody again.
Evidently I got the bleeding stopped then she would go and shake her head violently and it would start again. I wrapped her in a towel and held her like a baby, all the while putting pressure on her ear flap.
"Loy, look up how to stop a dog's ear from bleeding...I can't be the only person who has ever done this!!" The internet said pressure. And corn starch. So I sat there and put corn starch on her little ear flap. No blood. But, as soon as I put her down, it would start again.
When we finally got it stopped (BTW, evidently doggie ears bleed excessively. Lots and lots of blood vessels.) we began to assess the damage to our house. Sigh.
Blood smeared on my new white cabinets (evidently she was rubbing her ear on them) on the carpet on the door posts (if the Angel of Death was passing by that night, we'd have been safe) on the wall on Luke's bed on the floor. Just little bits of blood spatter. How in the world does anyone think that they can murder someone and not leave tons of blood around?????? (Loy says if we ever murder someone we will have to plan for the blood. Hope it's not me he's murdering.)
Finally, around 8:30 or 9:00 I was to the point where I got out my carpet cleaner and did the carpets. I got lots of the blood up, but not all. So today I had to call a professional.
The dogs are doing fine now. They even like me again. They look like street urchin dogs. I thought about taking them in to the groomer today, but am just too darned embarrassed!!! Maybe when it's grown out a little bit...
I must be the worst dog owner ever. But, at least they had one glorious day of being wild dogs on the Loess Hills. They are NEVER going back there. Ever.
Don't tell anyone this story, OK? :)
