It’s a cry for help
I’m currently mad at the dog. She seems determined to kill herself, and I just can’t be a party to it. I’ll summarize.
Today Cardiff had some blood in her poop. Not lots, but also not just a spot. Frankly, I was tempted to see if it repeated, but thought I would really feel horrible if it did and THEN I got her checked out only to find earlier intervention would have been better. So off to the vet, and then this text to my parents since they happened to call literally as we were driving to the appointment.
“Cardiff update:
We just got back from the vet $241 lighter. The main issue is the blood in the stool, which they sent a sample out to get checked for parasites and bacteria. Secondly, they’d like the loose stools better controlled, so sent us home with both probiotics and another medication to help with that.
Results of the stool test should be back tomorrow, which will hopefully be negative. If it’s something like Giardia, it will mean a whole round of treatment with medications, a wipe-down of all surfaces in the house with bleach, and me literally wiping her butt so she doesn’t reintroduce the parasite into her system.
Then comes the BIG part: the vet said if it comes from the backyard I would have to scrape a layer of topsoil from everywhere to remove the possible infestation of the dirt.
I may need to go back to work in order to pay for all this.”
Cardiff has been unchanged in behavior, appetite, energy, everything. She’s getting even bitey-er (that’s a word) if nothing else. But this afternoon I was trying to get her to not sleep the day away and spend some time in the now-dangerous backyard (don’t judge me). One of the bonuses of having a dog spending time back there is the maintenance that’s been happening with me filling the time with her. I’m making progress on the sideyard with maybe nine bricks a day (she aggressively tries to help, which wears my patience), I’ve trimmed the pear tree and the lemon tree, as well as picked up detritus in the areas beneath both.
I’ve also removed some of the coax cable that’s defacing the sides and back of my house from the time it spent as a rental before I purchased. Only the current coax connection closest to the pole is live, so there are literally five other lines snaking under the eaves and down to entry-points where there used to be service. Hence Markie filling in the now vacated holes with premixed stucco repair after removing the wires. Of course, a couple of the openings are down low to maximize the length of wire exposed on the outside of the building (ok, maybe I’m being a bit negative) and Cardiff thought the stucco mix looked mighty tasty.
Now, recall this puppy is possibly going to cause a second mortgage because she may be zombifying or something, and I’ve already made nice with the vet once today. She chooses to try to REPEATEDLY eat this stuff from the container as well as where it’s applied to the wall. I fend her off physically, and get to her follow me around back to put the stuff away to do later without her present. Only she pretends to follow me and double’s back when I stop monitoring her behind me. I set the now sealed container on the table and turn to pick her up and put inside, only to see miles to the horizon with no dog evident. I race back around the corner to find her eating the stuff off the wall and out of the hole like a starving contestant in an ice cream eating contest. It looks like I never even applied the mixture because of her efforts.
I immediately return back to the table to read the container for poison control’s number. I call, and am told it’s not poisonous to humans, but am given another number to call if I wish to verify for dogs. I call the new number and told it will be $95 to ask my question to this specialty service. At this point I’m mad at everyone in the world, including both Cardiff and myself. I hang up and decide to monitor her.
She’s still biting everything and everyone. I put her in her crate and gave her a Kong with peanut butter and some of her kibble in it, which lasted almost 12 minutes. She’s now singing the song of her people right now, in protest of the incarceration.