treats

I made the appointment with the vet soon after Henry came to live with me. We need to establish some baselines. And I have a few questions about caring for the pooch (big one: is he eating too little? Too much?). The vet I chose was an obvious pick for me -- Dr. Sarah. She herself has black labs and of course, I was told that Henry is mostly lab as well. (He isn't.) And I know she loves dogs. In fact I know a lot about her. Heck, I traveled to China with her some 25 years ago. She was my daughter's best friend in school (I invited the two girls to come with me to China where I was lecturing there for a couple of weeks). Dr. Sarah has many loyal patients, so I had to wait until today to get an appointment. Henry's first thorough checkup! (The shelter had done one before the adoption, but theirs was a cursory one. And I wasn't there for it, so I could not fire away with my questions.) That's for this afternoon. In the morning, the rains had moved on. My noble Henry seems to have moved his get up time to 6:30 and he held to it today. 

 

 

If you want to understand why dogs make people happy, then come along for a morning walk with him. Look at the curl of his upright tail! The sweep of that wag! The dog is a walking commercial for joy.

Breakfast, followed by time on the couch, where Henry tries to dive into being a Wisconsin dog by giving the "smells and looks like cheese" bone one more try.

And then I quickly drop him off for a short visit at doggie day care, while I drive over to the farmhouse to help with some final closet clearing. 

As I come up the driveway, all I can see is the work that I would put on my to do list here: the maple leaves that need to be shredded with a mower. The hydrangeas that should be trimmed.  The lotus seed pods, the prickly weeds... The flower fields -- oh, the work needed there! 

 

 

 

Will I really be fine with spending time here and ignoring it all? I hope so.

 

 

 

(Dance, munching on a mouse that she brought in from the farmette lands...) 

 

 

In the early afternoon, I dash to pick up Henry for his vet visit. I was floored by Dr. Sarah's care, professionalism, humor and of course kindness toward the ever shy Henry. These first visits are long if you need them to be long, and being somewhat alone in my rearing of the pup, I had a million questions. And here is this person who was once a teenager on a very long flight with me to Asia, now so adept at supporting me in my efforts. Truly a wonderful experience. (If you live in the Madison area, I highly recommend her and the Lakeview Clinic where she works. Incredible care.)

Henry, of course, was shy to enter the building, more shy still to enter the exam room, incredibly dubious of the technician who first came in to take down the basics, and slow to relax with Dr. Sarah. Velcrowed to my side, with only tentative forays to taste a treat. He did love the baby food, served to him straight from a jar. Pureed chicken! Yum! Not too far behind - something resembling Cheeze Whiz  squirted onto a plate for him to lick. He liked it so much that he went after the paper plate as well. I tell you, they worked hard to win him over! In the end Dr. Sarah said that he does better when I am not there to hide behind. She took him for a clinic walk in order to do a full exam.

I did ask him how much growing is still ahead of him. She thought maybe ten more pounds. She agreed that he was probably around 8 months old but wouldn't be surprised if he was a month or two older. There's some wear and tear on his back teeth, which she thinks may have been from some attempt to get out of somewhere, possibly during transport from Texas. 

It was late afternoon by the time we left. Still, I wanted to give Henry the treat of a run in the Penni Klein dog park.

I felt he needed a release of tension after what had to be a stressful set of hours. 

(coming round the bend is none other than my beautiful Henry!)

 

In the evening, there is no quiet time at the Edge for the two of us. Henry starts his obedience class tonight. I cannot wait for someone to tell me how to get Henry into the down position without physical force (which, of course, is no way to train a dog). That doesn't happen in the first class of course. Today, Henry had to do a lot of introductory listening. On the up side (from his perspective), the trainers are heavy treat reward givers. Between his usual treats from me, a multitude of treats from the vet, and the treats given during training class, I think he had his fill today. With this assessment, Henry would strongly disagree.

(in class, waiting for his reward)

 

 

So, another post about Henry, you say. One dog, many paragraphs. Perhaps you've figured out that I rarely do projects that I like in a small way. Kids, cooking, flower growing. Travel, blog writing. And now dog care. Excessive? No, just a whole lot of passion behind it all. 

And so much love...