Zoe Goes to Jail

She’s had a hard week.

Our Zoe was spayed on Tuesday. I can hardly believe she’s old enough. When I took her in Tuesday morning the vet’s assistant asked all the usual questions, which in this case included “Is she in heat or pregnant?” I nearly blurted out, “Of course not, she’s just a BABY!” Lordy, even parenting an adolescent dog is hard, I don’t know how those of you with human children manage!

We are supposed to keep her quiet and inactive for a week. This is why dog crates were invented. She has divided her time between Lizzie’s old crate in the bedroom, and Edward’s in my office. I rather hoped that the pain pills they sent home would keep her a little groggy, but once she recovered from the anesthesia, she was good to go. And more than a bit miffed at being confined. If she felt any pain she never let on. We gave her the pills, but I saw no indication that she would not be able to drive or operate heavy machinery because of them.

Of course she’s had various toys to help pass the time, but nothing is as satisfying as ripping rugs to pieces. We had one in her nighttime crate that Steven threw away this morning. She was systematically ripping it into strips. Hmmm, I wonder if JoAnn’s is hiring, maybe we could put her ability to rip cloth to good purpose. Her daytime crate had this rug under it, a yard sale find from a year or two ago.

She managed to push the tray in the crate out the front so she could get to the rug, resulting in this hole.

Disapproving Angel Kitty disapproves.

I’m going to try patching it with some of the felted purple sweater I got last week. My mending pile is getting rather high!

We’ll take her out of confinement Tuesday at lunchtime. Thank heavens, since along with inactivity she isn’t supposed to go up or down stairs for the week, and our house is all about stairs.

This week’s garaging netted little more than a couple of nice dog encounters. Brought home three tennis balls and a gray wool blanket. So the dogs were definitely the highlight! This is Blue.

When I chirped to get her to look over the gate, she hopped right over and came to help me shop! Her people told her sternly to go back to the yard, which she did. Wish Zoe were that obedient! Actually, looking at their back yard, I think they need to get her a goat or sheep to keep her company and mow the grass!

Blue was on Friday. Saturday’s dog was Flower.

She has that sheepish expression because she was holding a rock in her mouth and did not want to share it. Fortunately, she doesn’t eat rocks, just chews on them, which is hard on her teeth. She had a traumatic babyhood though, so I guess she’s entitled to something comforting like a good rock to chew. She was the only one in her litter of puppies that escaped a marauding coyote. She must have been a good hider. She has a very nice family, and since she’s getting older they wanted to get her a raincoat to keep her dry in our Oregon winters. So they ordered one in a size large from a distributer in China. This is what they were sent.

Hope some Chihuahua needed a raincoat.