Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Wednesday, October 4, 2017


Tonight's picture was taken during Mattie's first year of preschool, so 2005-2006. Mattie's preschool as a cooperative school, which meant that parents were required to volunteer in the classroom once a month. That particular day, Peter went in to volunteer instead of me. Margaret, Mattie's teacher, captured that moment. You can clearly see how happy Mattie was to have his dad visiting the classroom.








Quote of the day: Pain is such an uncomfortable feeling that even a tiny amount of it is enough to ruin every enjoyment. ~ Will Rogers

Today was not a good day for Sunny. Sunny was at the vet all day getting his teeth cleaned, having three removed, as well as getting three tumors (two on his legs and one on the eyelid) removed and sent for pathology. Seems to me any one of these things would be more than enough for a dog, but all three were overwhelming. Sunny had general anesthesia and it took him a while to come out of it. But there is great sadness in today's story. When the vet went to clean Sunny's teeth, she noticed that his two top canine teeth (the big pointy ones) were fractured and worn down to the nub. She called me about this because prior to her cleaning, we knew he had a cracked tooth in the front, but we did not know about the canines. So Sunny literally had to have three teeth removed today including the roots. If you look at the photos above, the one on the left shows his top canine tooth broken off. Then the "after" photo on the right shows the tooth removed and stitches in his gums. 

The question becomes how would a dog like Sunny have three fractured teeth like this?! The answer is that Sunny used his teeth to try to break free from either a chain or metal fence. It now makes more sense to me, because Sunny was found abandoned on a South Carolina highway. However, I always thought he was thrown from a car, but now I deduce that Sunny escaped a bad situation by choice. When animal control called his previous owner, alerting him that Sunny was found on the highway, the owner said.... 'keep him!' Unfortunately in the shelter Sunny was sent to in South Carolina, he would have been killed. Thankfully City Dogs in DC adopted him and worked hard to find him a new owner. I think it is fascinating how the body uncovers and reveals trauma, trauma which Sunny can't talk to us about. 

Sunny spent 8 hours at the vet today. Given that a tumor was removed from a back hind leg, a front leg, and his eye lid, Sunny is moving gingerly. Everything appears to hurt. Unlike our usual Sunny, he isn't eating and drinking today. 

Look at this sad face this afternoon! Despite Sunny's pain, he still insists on going out for walks. We are required to limit his activity for two days and he is literally supposed to wear a CONE around his head 24 hours a day for two weeks. But guess what? Sunny refuses to, as soon as you put it on him, he is like Houdini! He wiggles right out of it. The vet even intertwined the cone to his collar. But Sunny got both of the items off at the same time. So given their lack of success, I think it is hysterical that they think I am going to be more successful. As long as Sunny doesn't scratch his stitches, then he will remain cone free. 

We took Sunny for a walk this evening. A very short one because his hind legs seem to be weak from the anesthesia. You can see both of Sunny's front paws have been shaven. One for an IV, and the other was where the tumor was removed. You can also see his left eye has a stitch on the lower lid and we are supposed to put gel in his eye for two weeks. Sunny was sent home with pain killers and an anti-inflammatory, but he isn't compliant with pills. I learned this last year when he needed his grueling heartworm treatments (since he contracted heartworm in South Carolina). Tonight isn't going well for him, so I can only hope he can find rest because he seems very agitated.