Fenway Anniversary
We brought Fenway home two years ago this week. He's added so much to our lives and now his world is about to be turned upside down by this new baby. I keep trying to warn him, but I don't think he's figured it out yet.
Fenway had a terrible, terrible first year.
He had a toenail that grew fast and crooked and pushed back into the pad on his paw. We tried to trim the nail the first weekend we had him and hit the cuticle. It bled and bled and bled (and we were at Mom and Dad's). I was afraid we'd scarred him for life, but it turns out that was just the beginning.
A few weeks later we took him to Houston to meet Brian's mom, and he managed to run into the freezing cold pool within the first 30 minutes we were there. Luckily he almost knows how to swim and he came right up to the top and no one had to jump in to save him.
Then in April he ripped that same crooked toenail off on a runner in the grass and he bled and bled again. Luckily we were at home for that one.
We went on vacation in July and left him at home with a dog sitter, but he had to spend the first two days at doggy daycare. By the time we got home he had a horrible cold and had to have an antibiotic shot that didn't do any good at all. He sneezed and snotted all over our house for two months.
And then the worst happened: He broke his back leg. I'm still not sure how it happened. Brian's convinced it was on the stairs since he still won't walk up our stairs. I think he might have done it with the (second) lamp he pulled off the side table and shattered into a million pieces on top of him. We'll never know, but it was an honest to goodness break; I saw the x-rays.
He had to wear a full cast for 4 weeks. And he had to have a head cone because otherwise he'd chew the cast off. (That only happened once.) Oh, he was so pathetic. He couldn't fit in his kennel with the cone on his head so he didn't sleep well. He couldn't eat out of his dog bowl so I fed him out of my hand...wow, it was really awful.
As soon as he got the cast off we had to get him neutered because he was already almost 10 months old by then. We decided to have the problem toenail removed at the same time since he'd be asleep anyway.
That was just cruel of us. We had to keep that front foot wrapped up for another 2weeks. It's really a miracle he can still walk.
We were so excited when he had his first birthday that Christmas Eve! We'd all survived.
He's been such a great dog ever since that first year. No broken bones. No more colds. He can run ridiculously fast if there's a squirrel in the backyard so we don't think there are any lingering problems from the broken leg or the missing toenail. He'll even get in the pool if he's on a raft.
He'll always be our first baby.
Fenway had a terrible, terrible first year.
He had a toenail that grew fast and crooked and pushed back into the pad on his paw. We tried to trim the nail the first weekend we had him and hit the cuticle. It bled and bled and bled (and we were at Mom and Dad's). I was afraid we'd scarred him for life, but it turns out that was just the beginning.
A few weeks later we took him to Houston to meet Brian's mom, and he managed to run into the freezing cold pool within the first 30 minutes we were there. Luckily he almost knows how to swim and he came right up to the top and no one had to jump in to save him.
Then in April he ripped that same crooked toenail off on a runner in the grass and he bled and bled again. Luckily we were at home for that one.
We went on vacation in July and left him at home with a dog sitter, but he had to spend the first two days at doggy daycare. By the time we got home he had a horrible cold and had to have an antibiotic shot that didn't do any good at all. He sneezed and snotted all over our house for two months.
And then the worst happened: He broke his back leg. I'm still not sure how it happened. Brian's convinced it was on the stairs since he still won't walk up our stairs. I think he might have done it with the (second) lamp he pulled off the side table and shattered into a million pieces on top of him. We'll never know, but it was an honest to goodness break; I saw the x-rays.
He had to wear a full cast for 4 weeks. And he had to have a head cone because otherwise he'd chew the cast off. (That only happened once.) Oh, he was so pathetic. He couldn't fit in his kennel with the cone on his head so he didn't sleep well. He couldn't eat out of his dog bowl so I fed him out of my hand...wow, it was really awful.
As soon as he got the cast off we had to get him neutered because he was already almost 10 months old by then. We decided to have the problem toenail removed at the same time since he'd be asleep anyway.
That was just cruel of us. We had to keep that front foot wrapped up for another 2weeks. It's really a miracle he can still walk.
We were so excited when he had his first birthday that Christmas Eve! We'd all survived.
He's been such a great dog ever since that first year. No broken bones. No more colds. He can run ridiculously fast if there's a squirrel in the backyard so we don't think there are any lingering problems from the broken leg or the missing toenail. He'll even get in the pool if he's on a raft.
He'll always be our first baby.
1 Comments:
He had such an awful first year! Hopefully he'll have many more easy and painless years to come. You showed a lot of patience and perseverance in caring for him and keeping him through that first year. Many people would have thought he was too much trouble and too expensive to keep.
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February 14, 2009 at 10:02:00 AM CST
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