May 02 2010
Inveterate
Schatzi had an appointment at the vet, so Star and I went along for the ride.
It became immediately obvious how used I was to Schatzi’s inveterate good manners. She jumps into the back seat and stays there. She may stick her head out of the window for a power sniff, or whimper a little with excitement if she sees we’re going somewhere really good, but that’s about the worst you can say about her in the car. She never even barks when left alone. Bonus: you can leave your groceries with her and she won’t touch them.
Star, on the other hand, is wiggly and bouncy and keeps trying to get into the front seat, where she clearly thinks she belongs. I ended up putting my arm across the space between the two front seats, and she’d push against me and sometimes give me a kiss.
We weighed her at Dr. Karen’s, and if there had been a prize, I would have won it for guessing her weight correctly at 50 pounds. Her lack of fur on her belly and armpits is caused by distress licking, but Karen also said that the fur was growing back, so Star has stopped doing that since the fostering started.
Schatzi is completely perfect, other than her usual need for thyroid tablets. She’s in better shape than most dogs half her age, I’m happy to report.
During the time it took to get the two dogs checked out, a woman came in with a two month old blue-nose pit bull puppy who had fallen and needed an x-ray; a man dropped off a basket of strawberries for Dr. Karen; a woman picked up her dog who had an ear infection, scratched it, tore the cartilage, and had just had surgery; and I helped an elderly lady carry her aged cat to the car. The woman with the ear surgery patient had come all the way from Willits to see Dr. Karen. Never a dull moment in that office, even past closing time on a Friday afternoon.