The past two days, I can not imagine how Noah managed two of every species on his ark. I have struggled with just a male and female dog on mine. This unrelenting rain has meant perpetually damp hair (mine and the pups), wet paws and feet, and just an overall soggy disposition for man and beast alike.
I have banged my fingers on a keyboard during the day and drank wine at night to alleviate my frustrations with the weather. The pups have chewed on towels and taken it out on each other in frenzied wrestling matches. Right now, the two of them are so bored from being cooped up more than normal today that Archie is chewing on the wire of the crate while Daisy sniffs every single inch of my office … for what I do not know. The bad weather has also resulted in two accidents after weeks of being accident-free, and I’m certain that my office smells like the wettest of wet dogs (I can’t smell it anymore).
Yesterday, after the first day of unceasing rain, I decided to use all this inside time to take a whack at clipping the pups’ nails again. Both have been fairly amenable to the chore. However, because they have a mix of black and white nails, I’ve been hesitant to clip them too short.
Before I started, I read online about a little trick that’s supposed to cause the nail quick to recede and allow a shorter cut. I started with Daisy because she is literally putty in my hands and allows me (or anyone really) to mold her into just about any position I want. When I set the clippers on the first nail, she yelped and pulled back before I even made a cut. hmmm I moved to the second nail. While I was successful in clipping it, she jumped out of my arms in the process. It was then that I saw the spots of blood on the dog bed beside us. Worse yet, her sweet little paw was covered in blood.
Luckily, I had had a sort of sixth sense that something might happen and had pulled out the styptic powder a minute before. With Don’s help, I was able to stop the bleeding pretty quickly. But I was still a wreck. Don knows my tendency to overreact (I can’t help it; it’s genetic!) and has developed a real skill for quickly talking me off a ledge. He convinced me that everything would be fine. But instead of hovering over Daisy a while longer and potentially causing the quick to start bleeding again, he suggested that I crate the pups per our schedule. That would give her aggravated nail — and me –a chance to settle down.
I took his good advice. Although I was looking for signs of trauma all morning, today everything was completely back to normal. Of course, Don wasn’t the least bit surprised.
