Look Out, Here We Come

The upcoming week is that one week in the year that causes me sleepless nights and anxiety attacks during the days. No, it isn't visits from in-laws or tax deadlines or any of those anxiety driven events. This is the week that all ten of my dogs visit the vet. They go in for their annual exam, blood tests, any vaccinations that are due and general mayhem.

To preserve the sanity of the vet, any and all hospital staff and myself, we do not take all ten at once. I divide them into somewhat manageable groups. The first group is Tsar, Morgan and Samba. I'm breaking the staff in gently. Morgan and Tsar are both well behaved in the vet's office.Morgan visits often and just sits quietly, trembling the entire time. Tsar watches everyone closely and as long as the doctor moves slowly and shows him everything, he's fine.

Samba loves to go to the vet. She likes to jump onto the table by herself and wants lots of attention and lots of treats. She has memorized the location of the treat jar in each room and will show everyone where it is as soon as they enter the room.

The next group to visit will be the worst. All four girls are going together. The 'silly sisters', Tess and Norma Jean, and the 'demon dogs from Hell', Lola and Bailey will all erupt into the quiet little waiting room at once. They will try to go in four different directions to discover anything to eat or play with. They will greet the staff by jumping on them and licking any exposed skin available. They will try to examine the computer keyboards and the supplies neatly arrayed on counters.

As we are escorted into an exam room, a call will be sounded for any available person to come hold and distract the PWDs currently in room 1. Someone who wasn't wise enough to get busy when our car pulled in the parking lot, will be enlisted to sit at one end of the room with the leashes in one hand while fighting off slurpy kisses from the three girls not on the exam table.

Dr B will have his hands full, even with two of us holding whoever is being examined, fighting off the slurping tongue aimed at his face. As each one is finished with her exam, she will get a noisy, happy greeting from her sisters as she rejoins them. The All Creatures staff will give a sigh of relief as the girls head for the car. Only one group left.

The final group is the boys, Fudge, Sky and Noah. They are an interesting group, father and two sons, small, medium and large. Sky is very big for a PWD, Fudge is just right according to the standard and Noah is small. These three behave quite well at the hospital and there will probably be no incidents.

When the boys are finished, the staff can relax, they have survived the visits from our pack for another year. They may see a few of them again throughout the year for one thing or another, but singly or in pairs, they're much easier to handle. It's that circus like atmosphere when they all get together that can be overwhelming. When we get home after the last group visit, I'll sit back, put my feet up and sip a glass of wine to celebrate getting through this event once more.

About a week ago Nicky from Dughallmore Beagles did a post on 'snooters'. It was really cute and I wanted to try to copy it. I had mixed results. I'm not used to my new camera, yet and need to practice with it. Also, I think this kind of photography works better on dogs that sit still for more than half a second at a time. Anyway, here are some snooters that I managed to catch today.