Unfortunate Life of a Puppy

Moving will always be a stressful time, especially if you were to move permanently and into a stranger's home. The newest member of our family has had an exceptionally difficult one.

Becca and I adopted a little white and brown puppy from the local humane society on Tuesday to grow up with my one and a half year old puppy, Echo. Daisy and Echo hit it off wonderfully. He would attempt to start a game of tug-of-war and pull her across the room, and she would get up and lick his chin in adoration.

I expected that she would get sick early on from the change of diet and location, but I didn't quite expect worms in her vomit. That night my wife and I went to Walmart for some de-wormer, and later, both dogs ate that wonderful pill. Even later, they both expelled the worms from their bodies, and in the morning, I had the privilege of cleaning, bathing, and sterilizing the kennel and the dogs. They both looked rather miserable for a few days.

The plan was to take Daisy to the vet for her first round of shots, but before we could make our way to our local shot clinic, a wasp decided to do it's own vaccinating. I saw the whole thing unfold like a scene from a bad cartoon: the wasp saw the puppy, the puppy saw the wasp, the owner tried to react, the puppy decided to play with the wasp, and the wasp didn't want to play. I mashed the wasp but seconds too late. Her paw swelled up like a water balloon, and she hobbled to the kennel crying at the top of her lungs. I happened to have some children's strength diphenhydramine and measuring syringe formerly used to keep Echo drowsy on a long drive (16 hours?). My wife covered her paw with a baking powder paste, and by bedtime, she was as happy as such an unfortunate puppy could be.

On Sunday, I thought that surely this was the most unfortunate of puppies. In less than a week, she went through moving, worms medication, potty training (still very incomplete), finding her place at the bottom of the pack, and a wasp sting.

At work today, I received an unrecognized call and did not answer. When my phone informed me of the voice mail, I became interested and called voice mail. My neighbor's voice was saying something about his car and a vet and how very sorry he was. I drove to the veterinary clinic in the voice mail and found my neighbor and poor Daisy. She was breathing hard but breathing. She somehow had escaped the fenced back yard and lodged herself under his car. My neighbor was so filled with remorse that I let him go to work, and I stayed to get my little puppy x-rayed. She has some internal bruising, but no major broken bones. Her diaphragm is intact, and she can walk with a limp. All we can do now is wait and hope for the best. The pain medications will help, and so will the antibiotics.

What a most unfortunate dog.

Now I need to tell my wife...