Groomer Day, Feb 26th. Thursday.
9 pm
I had almost forgotten that it was medication day, until both guys sat down on the rug and started scratching their ears at the same time. One was easy, of course, though he was being a picky eater. I mixed up Buddy’s crushed pill with some wet Cesar. I put the whole concoction onto a plate. He sniffed at it, licked it to get a bit of a taste, then walked away, Bubba style. I stirred in some minced Milk Bone, and even that didn’t do it. So I put the plate up on the counter (didn’t want Bubba eating it) and mixed up Bubba’s portion.
Bubba had eaten too much today, and wasn’t in the mood for any treats. He sniffed at the filet mignon, and went to bed.
I tried putting down the plate with Buddy’s medication a couple of times, and he wouldn’t eat it. He would sniff, sometimes give it a testing lick, and then walk away. So I tried a different approach, putting spoonfuls into the palm of my hand – and he ate every bit as if it was the last morsel of food on the planet.
We’ll do Bubba’s tomorrow, before dinner when he’s got an appetite.
5:30 pm
Buddy and I got out for a short bathroom break walk, then headed back in. Bubba looks beat down. The poor guy – this is my fault. He’s always exhausted after a day of playing for several hours at the Day Spa. I wasn’t thinking when we started off the morning with some spectacular Chase, and now he’s worn out. I know that look – every time I start a new workout routine, and the next day I’m reminded that I’m no longer 20 years old – I have that same look.
Buddy is fine, of course. He’s full of energy, and he’s going to want to play tonight, which will make my deadline for work tomorrow challenging. But what’s life without a good challenge?
The food is almost gone. Bubba had dinner and went to sleep, and Buddy vaccumed up most of the rest.
Noon-ish
I got the text from Bobbie telling me that she was done only a few minutes after the groomer texted to tell me the guys were ready. The timing could not have been much better.
The walk back was quick. Buddy stopped to poop on the way back. Bubba has not pooped since I started this tour of duty.
10 am
We headed over to the spa. Buddy seemed really excited about going, and ran ahead of us – but on a restricted leash – the entire way. We walked down Green Lantern behind the groomer and used the stairs that enter from Santa Clara. Bubba had become afraid of those stairs for some reason, and would stick to the edge of the stairs, as well as the small stretch of sidewalk connecting Santa Clara to the plaza property. When we got there, Buddy stopped to sniff things, and Bubba just continued down the stairs, in the middle, afraid of nothing. Whatever bothered him before was not bothering him today.
Inside the groomers, Buddy did not freak out and try to escape. Bubba plunged ahead to the inner gate as soon as we walked in, eager to get in to visit with the friends. Buddy hung back, but once the inner gate was opened, he ran right in. So whatever he was afraid of he also was over. It was good seeing the guys just living again, without anything impeding them from just enjoying the walk or visiting with friends at the groomer.
9:20 am
Today started off with another horrible headache, but since I woke up at 7, it gave me time to guzzle water, coffee and Excedrin, so it was better by the time I got to the guys. It would have been a horrible morning otherwise, because I had two very-active guys this morning.
Buddy was at the door when I came in. Bubba was not in view in the living room, and there were no blankets in the beds for him to be hiding under. I found him in the bedroom, lying in one of the beds at the foot of the people bed. This was good – if he would sleep another half hour, I could get the place cleaned up first, then we could go to the groomer. I went into the room, and his head slowly rose up, and his eyes opened slightly, then his eyes closed and he put his head down. I looked at his ribcage, and his breathing looked really shallow. I worried that he wasn’t feeling well. I moved closer, crouched down, and put my hand on his side to feel the breathing.
I think that when he opened his eyes, he may not have seen me, because my touch woke him up fully. He stood up, stretched – I thought: “let sleeping dogs lie” – and then he wanted to play. He ran into the livingroom, and that sparked excitement in Buddy who started pulling bunnies out of the basket. And for the next half hour, we played, while I tried to get things tidied up before Bobbie’s visit.
Bubba was in rare form. I took my guitar next door, and when I came out of my house, Bubba started barking. He had been standing up, watching. As I came up the stairs, he was up on his hind legs, and with his front paws he was banging and scratching at the screen door. When I opeend the door, he took off running. He was pushing the game of chase, very early, with a lot of enthusiasm. I had to go next door again to get my latex gloves, and when I came back, he was against standing tall, front paws banging the screen to taunt (maybe?) me into chasing him. In between the two trips home, we ran back and forth chasing several times.
All the while, Buddy and I played GateKeeper, using the threshold to the bedroom as the gate, this time. It started off with the lion, but he ended up using bunnies later. He worked against himself in pulling out both bunnies, because he didn’t know which one to defend when I’d go to grab one. When he just had one, he could drop it on the floor and stare me down, challenging me to try to be the quicker draw to grab it. But with two bunnies and only one mouth, he was severely disadvantaged against an adversary with two hands. I would lunge, he would grab the bunny he thought I was after, I’d pick up the other bunny and run, and he would drop his to give chase.
GateKeeper with the new toys is more fun, because they’re all so big, when he runs by there’s a lot of toy available for me to grab. It makes it more challenging for him to get past me, but he’s gotten good at shaking his head when he runs to make it harder for me to get ahold of a bunny or lion. His taunts are hillarious, when he stands 5-feet away, and chews on the squeaker in a similar cadence to how I use the squeaker when the toy is in my hand, and I’m taunting him.
We had a few crashes, where one guy would run into another guy when both games were happening at the same time, but no injuries occurred.
There were no accidents, so the only thing I needed to really do was pick up the pee pad in the bathroom before we left.