Leaving the Pupster :-(

It's really, really hard leaving that cute little face and going to work every day. No matter how he's feeling, no matter what he's doing, the moment I walk over to him he wants to love me.

I thought before we got Marcus that I'd prepared for absolutely everything that could have gone wrong.I was not prepared for him to come back from his walk with Aaron and to have stuck his face into some nasty plant that made him itch to high heaven. After finding really varying responses online regarding how much Benadryl to give Marcus, we called a friend of ours who got us straightened out. At the same time, I made a vet appointment just in case he happened to get worse.

The Benadryl knocked him out, but it didn't seem to help. He would wake up every ten minutes and scratch the heck out of his face, then fall back asleep. So off to the vet we went. While he wasn't initially that phased by car rides, we'd accidentally scared him regarding the garage (we opened the door after he got in there, and it was very loud, and he ran back into the house), wo we had to carry him into the car. He was fine at the vet's at first, until he heard the other dogs whimpering, and then he started giving me this look like, "What the heck have you brought me here for!?"

Despite being fearful of the exam table (which was too high and too slippery for his tastes), and needing to hide in my armpit, he was surprisingly good with the exam. He didn't whimper or bark even when he got his temperature taken with a rectal thermometer, and he barely even flinched when he was given the cortisone shot. And any fear that he'd had at the vet's was gone the moment he returned home. He was still a bit groggy, and a bit clumsier than usual from the Benadryl, but he still happily played with me when I went over to him, and perked up when we went for our walk.

After all this was said and done, I began to realize how paranoid of a dog mommy I am. I literally watch his every behavioral nuance to see if there's something not right with him. "Oh, he didn't stand up when I came over to pet him, he just lifted his head and put it on my leg. There must be something wrong!" I'm really glad that I got a dog (who seems to be fine with me worrying over his every need), and not a child!