Thursday, May 21, 2009

Pooh Bear


Craig and I moved into our home in August after a month of bugging him for a puppy, I finally convinced him to go to the Humane Society to look for a puppy. We got there and looked at the puppies and looked at the dogs but there was this one puppy/dog that kept yapping at us and was spinning around trying to get our attention. We knew then that she was to be ours. When we looked at her we assumed she was half grow at 3 months old and 18 pounds….we were wrong. She is now 80 pounds almost 6 years old. She is an amazing dog…truly. I have a great story about how we bonded.

Of course I have always loved Pooh but for the 1st three years she was more like Craig’s dog. There was an obvious preference on her part. When I became pregnant and was stuck at home on bed rest, Pooh and I spent a lot of time together. She would bug me to go out and I would let her out constantly. But I noticed as I got sicker, she asked to go out less. I also noticed that she stuck to me more, laid on the floor next to the couch or slept on the floor next to my bed. Always close by and always keeping an eye on me. I was very concerned about how Pooh was going to react to the baby…Pooh had always been the baby and she got so much attention. I mean anyone that comes to our house was obviously there to see her. I remember when I was admitted to the hospital I was so worried because Craig was downstate and who would take care of Pooh. We set up a rotation and our friends and family all took turns going by the house and letting her out and spending time with her. I remember the first time I walked into the house after my c-section thinking that Pooh would be so excited to see me that she would immediately jump on me. She didn’t jump…she sniffed me and again didn’t leave my side. It truly amazed me how she became my best friend when I needed her, it completely changed our relationship. I spoke to the NICU nurses while Gillian was in the hospital to see what I could do to make the transition easy for Pooh and Gillian. They had suggest bringing all Gillian’s blankets and clothes home regularly to be washed and let Pooh sniff them before I wash them so she would pick up Gillian’s scent. That worked…the day Gillian came home Pooh could have cared less, she was more excited about the visitors that came with her. Through the years both children have had their moments of annoyance with the other but both seem to know their roles and do care about each other…like normal siblings.

I’m sharing this story because it is a fond memory of mine and poor Pooh has had some very bad luck lately. She broke her toe right before Easter and was limping around. We took her to the vet and they put her in what they consider a splint and I consider a cast. It looked like she broke a leg not a toe. So for the last 5 ½ weeks we have been taking care of Pooh and her cast, making sure she doesn’t lick it and bagging it when she goes outside. I thought we had been doing well and was hoping in the next week that the splint would be coming off and more bad luck. I noticed that her cast smelled so I called the vet and got Pooh down there. They needed to keep her overnight because a larger fellow would be in in the morning for when the splint came off so they could do an x-ray. Today the splint came off and she has tons of sores from the cast…not good. She is on all sorts of medicine and is in tremendous pain. I feel awful for her. She couldn’t tell us she was in pain for who knows how long. And the toe is still broken so now we have to heal the sores so they can figure out what else can be done for her toe. So tonight I have spent the evening with Pooh, giving her a rub down, trying to make her take her medicine and trying to make her feel better. I hate when my children are sick….

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