Monday, November 23, 2009

Sunday Night, 11:25 p.m.

Snowball is a mutt with a lot of curly white fur. Our vet thinks he's a LhasaPoo.

In the last few months the fur has overgrown his eyes, so that we can't see them. This doesn't appear to be a problem for him, as watching him navigate the house it's obvious that he sees quite well.

Marie, however, has serious issues with this. She's convinced he's now blind, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

So last night we were woken by wild howling and barking. The hall bathroom light was on, so I ran in there.

Marie apparently was unable to sleep, and was up worrying about Snowball's vision. She REALLY felt something had to be done, so she'd cornered him in the bathroom, and was using all sorts of her own hair things to pull the hair out of his eyes. She had his bangs tied up in ponytails over each eye. She also had plastic hair clips placed above and below both eyes to hold more hair out of the way.

It was so sad. He looked like the guy in "A Clockwork Orange" where they wired his eyes open to force him to watch movies.




I sent Marie to bed and freed Snowball. He spent the rest of the night in bed with me to show his appreciation.

Between my kids and my cell phone I'm getting pretty damn sleep deprived. Maybe my dementia patients today won't notice if I nap in front of them.

16 comments:

ABC said...

is there any pictorial evidence?

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Hell no. I just wanted to save the dog and go back to bed.

Anonymous said...

That was so flipping funny, Love your kids, they must keep you grounded.

Vegan Epicurean said...

Great story doc. It is nice to start the day with a laugh. Sorry you didn't get much sleep.

Alicia

J-Quell'n said...

Love that movie...I can just imagine the poor dog...LOL

Helen said...

I wanted to be a vet when I was a kid, so my best friend and I set up a "clinic" in the basement and used my poor dog as our patient. She very graciously put up with it all, until my Dad caught us "disinfecting" her paws in little bowls of warm water.

You have awesome kids.

Fordo said...

So why don't you just cut his hair over his eyes? Its pretty easy, the dog will appreciate it and Marie will quit worrying.

The Good Cook said...

I think Marie is destined for a career in healthcare.

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, this post made my crappy day suddenly so much better!! Thank you! (Sorry about your sleep though).

Rebecca S. said...

Studies show that if you nap on the job you will have a more productive afternoon:)
Cheers

Classof65 said...

Will the demented patients be able to tell the difference? lol Oh, yeah, they probably have keepers!!

PinkLAM said...

I've been following your blog for quite some time now and love it! I want to be a neurologist (in, about, 12 or so years...) but I already lost my sanity a long time ago.

We also have a LhasaPoo and he was subjected to very similar treatment by my mother when his fur grew out too much. I always felt terrible because he looked ridiculous, so one day I took matters into my own hands with a pair of scissors. Lesson learned: leave the grooming up to the groomer.

River said...

Fordo said it. Trim the hair around the face. He'll be cooler in summer at least and won't get so much food caught in it.

ERP said...

Just don't let the kids near the dog with some shears.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness I laughed till I cried on this one.

I really appreciate the kid stories on the blog. They're incidentally helping me with my research on younger children for a short story I'm writing.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I'm working my way through your archive... sorry if this is irrelevant. Matted dog fur can cause many health issues. I'll spare you my usual spiel. As someone who grooms many matted dogs... get snowball groomed, he'll feel better and he'll be more lovable :)

 
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