Doggie Dramas

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Our senior fluffy dog got an itch. He scratched and gnwed at his leg until we couldn't ignore it any more and, in consultation with his owners over in Iceland, we diligently applied creams and bandages and inflatable collars to make it harder to reach his feet. Junior helped as best he could: he nipped at Senior's heels, did his best to chew on the bandage by proxy, and bit off the valve of the inflatable collar thereby rendering it useless.

Nothing got better.

"Its an infected spider bite," said the vet, and gave us medicine which senior devoured in chunks of cheese. Junior ate bits of cheese too, purely in solidarity for Senior's suffering. The vet also provided a more robust Collar of Shame, one which couldn't be chewed up by Junior. The collar presented Senior with certain barriers but he was up to the challenge.
 
 
A week went by and Senior healed up and got his graduation from the vet. Junior didn't get to eat complementary chunks of cheese any more. We took the collar off and Senior chomped right down on his leg like a hungry Dad at a Bunnings sausage sizzle.

On went the collar and here we are, spending our time on a regime of collars and strict supervision of collar-free time, growling at Senior whenever he fancies to nibble on a limb and waiting out the time until the fur grows out on his shaved little leg.  He's clever too: when I turned my head he sneaked off down the hallway to chew on his leg in private.
 
Me?  Chew my leg? Never!
 
"Don't worry about that!"  Senior's owners were quite laid-back as they floated around the top of the world on a fancy boat, dodging icebergs and chasing the Northern lights. "He always does that. He'll settle down once his fur grows back. Just stop him from chewing in the meantime."

Well that was easier said than done, wasn't it? But we're nothing if not good little house and pet sitters so in between cleaning and packing up for the end of our sit we're policing a small fluffy dog so that he doesn't eat himself alive.

Wish us luck.
 
Oh, all right.  Just one more fluffy dog picture before I go.
 

 


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