Thursday, Sept 24
4:30 pm
Dinner time. Buddy is so funny. I was chopping the meat from one of the new chickens into bubba-bite sized pieces. Dinner was set out, and Buddy could have eaten from the bowl, but he wanted to beg for scraps of the exact same food that’s in the bowls, to be hand-fed to him in the kitchen. I don’t know why that tickles me so much, but it really makes me laugh.
After dinner, Buddy and I went for a very very short walk. His friends Baffo and Charlie were right outside the memorial, but he ignored them, pooped, and wanted to head right back. It was very quick. Across the street, business done, rush home.
And in that small amount of time, Bubba had pooped all over the bathroom.
2:10 pm
I hadn’t heard from the groomer, and it was over 4 hours, so I dragged my mom out to drive over. Sometimes the groomer gets behind, and the guys still seem to like playing once they warm up to being there. Buddy ran over and was hopping like a kangaroo, trying to hop over the counter to get to me. Bubba was just running around among the group of dogs that came to the gate to look at the stranger.
I asked the owner if they were ready. She said yes, and asked if I had not gotten the text. I said no, suggested that “maybe they texted Mike instead?” She confirmed that they had. She apologized. I said it was no big deal, that I thought they might be busy, and we were going to just sit at the cafe to wait for the guys.
Buddy was happy to be out. He immediately was sniffing and peeing and checking things out on the way back to the car. Bubba was terrified. He was fine inside the shop, but as soon as we started out the door he was afraid. I tried to walk with him, but it was not good, so I ended up carrying him back to the car. He wasn’t shaking, like he was on the way in, and during the hand off, but he was still afraid of something. He was fine once inside the car, but then he didn’t want to get out of the car once we were back. I had to pick him up and carry him to get him to come out of the car. I put him down on the far side of the empty space next to my mom’s, so he could smell around the fancy black Mustang – he probably thinks it’s his car – and figured that would be familiar and comfortable. But it looked foreign to him, and he started walking away from home – the same direction as our building, but to the side of the building nearest the entrance to the complex.
9:30 am
We had our first slightly-resistant groomer day get-out ever. But it wasn’t bad. I had gone over at 8:30. Buddy was still hanging out by the front door, and Bubba was sleeping in the bedroom. I didn’t think it would work well to put out dry food to marinade, wait 20 minutes, get the food out and then have to go very shortly after. Bubba usually doesn’t eat early – at least when I’m on duty – so I gave Buddy some treats to serve as breakfast, without creating anything I had to pick up before Bobbie arrived. Buddy happily chewed on dog candy and ignored me.
We were driving over. Buddy was eager to get out, probably because he could see my mom waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Bubba had moved out to the living room, relaxing in a bed but not sleeping. Buddy let me put on his uniform, and then ran back to the door, tail wagging with excitement, watching my mother. If I’d waited a bit, Bubba probably would have picked up on Buddy’s energy and got excited about going, too, but I wanted to get going. He stood up when I put the harness over his head, and helped me get him dressed. He didn’t get out of bed, looking tired, and not eager to get out on a grey, damp morning. But Bubba was easy – he got picked up and carried out, and didn’t put up any sort of complaint or resistance.
I told Buddy that we were going for a ride, which may have helped with his enthusiasm to go. Buddy jumped right up into the car. Bubba looked like he wanted to jump up, but the looked up at me – he needed help.
Buddy was excited the whole drive. Bubba was trying to dig his way through the seat in my mom’s car, which was covered so he could try as much as liked. Bubba started shaking about half way along PCH to the groomer’s, and the shaking got progressively worse as we drove. When we got out of the car, we took the guys for a walk behind the building so they could get a little exercise and a bathroom break before they were at the spa. Bubba was fine then, but he started getting bad when we turned to head to the groomer. I had my mom sit with him, and I took Buddy in. Buddy was nervous as usual, but not too-difficult to get in.
I went back out and sat with Bubba a while, then carried him in. His eyes were darting around like crazy, and he was shaking horribly – like we were going to be attacked any moment. I held him, and would move forward a few feet and let him look around, see that we were fine, and nothing attacked us. We did that all the way to the shop, and he just never calmed down. I handed him over the counter, rather than having him walk through the gate. The girl picked him up, and cuddled him trying to get him to stop shaking, but he looked terrified. She took him into the back where Buddy had gone, and we – my mother and I – left to return home.