How do you try to kill your puppy twice in one week?
I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you need to know, here it
is.
From the
beginning, I’ve trimmed Millie’s nails, but lately it’s not working for me. She
squirms too much and mouths too much. But one Saturday late night, I looked at her nails
and panicked realizing her quicks were advancing--big time. So I decided I
needed to cut them no matter what, even though it was late at night, I was tired and I’d had
an ugly day.
The very first nail I cut too close. She yelps and
blood seeps from it saturating her hairy little paw.
Her big brown eyes (green glowing at times) looked at me bewildered (or at
least that's the emotion I assigned). Earlier, I'd spent time with my honey
Google so I raced
to him again for help. And there it was—several thousand hits on how to stop
the bleeding quick of a dog.
Out of those choices, this is what I chose. In a bowl,
I poured flour. In the middle of the mound of flour, I dunked her paw
and watched the powder billow upward to our noses. She sneezed—then wagged her
tail. I did not sneeze, nor wagged my tail. Imagine that I repeated this three
more times, because I did. When I finished bathing her paw in
flour, I looked at the nail and it appeared to have
stopped bleeding.
I sat down in a chair all shaky. Millie didn't seem to
care about my feelings and headed for the bowl to eat the flour and overturn
the bowl.
The next morning when I awoke, the bed in her crate was a
bloody mess. I had killed her. NOT REALLY, but that was how I spent my
night—dreaming that I had killed her over and over again.
My overreaction to this incident can be blamed on
information I received from 1990, the last time I purchased a pet--my boxer: Suki Aki. I was
told that dogs could bleed to death if their nails were trimmed into their
quicks too far.
She lived, but I tried again to kill Millie the next Wednesday. Our entire
district shuts down on Wednesday--the day before the first day of
school. I scheduled a new handyman service to visit that day and fix
things around my house. But for the 40 millionth time he cancelled on me.
The weather was beautiful so I decided to take Millie to a state park—for a day
out; you know to socialize her since I've not done much of
that.
She rode in the backseat, in her crate gagging a couple
of times, but did well. Once we arrived in the park, we stopped first
where there were pools of trout. I thought this would be a good place to start,
but there were mowers mowing, children laughing and cars rumbling. These sounds made Millie
nervous, wide-eyed and paralyzed. I gathered her up, got back in the car and
set her in my lap to drive to another area at the far end of the park.
When we arrived, I was pleased to see that we were
alone with nature, Millie and me--although, it was a little
creepy.
Out of the car we went. Millie was much happier now, and
she demonstrated by flipping her hair like it was a mane and her head like
she was a horse, one hand high--standing. She walked beside
me or in front of me and felt comfortable enough
to wee on the grass. After a while, I felt she was
ready to move on up to a more populated area. By this time, I really needed to
use the restroom myself (in this case the fancy outhouses). I figured I could
leave her in the car, in the shade for the five minutes, be in and out and no
one would break out my window to save her. That was my plan until two men in a
pickup rolled up the secluded driveway, ever so slowly.
You know how you get those feelings? Where your creepster meter tilts heavily? Where you need to move
on? I had a feeling.
Does Millie
attack and destroy the creepsters? Was Teresa overreacting again? Does Millie
survive the second attack of her owner?
To be
continued on Friday!
(Forgive the formatting. No matter how much I tried, the formatting was off.)
You're brave. We never trimmed our dogs' nails.
ReplyDeleteI hope you high tailed it out of there! You're still will us, so I trust nothing bad happened.
You keep me on pins and needles here, my friend. Glad Millie survived her nail trimming. We have the same problem with our 3 English Shepherds. Think Millie's size times six. Waiting with bated breath for your Friday post. :)
ReplyDeleteMy ex attempted to trim Pepper's nails once, hit the quick and said never again. Both my dogs have only ever gone to a groomer for it. I won't do it either. It's too hard to see with the black nails! Eagerly awaiting your Friday follow up post!!!!
ReplyDeleteI tried to trim my cat's nails once and I am still emotionally damaged from the experience...
ReplyDeleteWhat!? You can't stop now! I need to check back Friday to see what happens. I've never trimmed my dog's nails. I'm too nervous to do it. I just get it done at the vets.
ReplyDeleteMy creepster meter is very sensitive. I would've moved out, too. I'm marking on my calendar to come back here on Friday!
ReplyDeleteI let someone else do the nailclipping....I`ll bet the men are going to give you the devil because you let your dog in the car while you wee wee ed....people take it upon themselves to be the dog police,lol....Phyllis
ReplyDeleteI never want to do it, cut the cats close once and he wasn't happy with that, hmmm creepster meter says run, you run haha
ReplyDeleteHi Teresa ... I couldn't trim a dog's nails - I'd have to visit a vet, or dog manicurist ... or .... Millie seems to be ok - as you had your visit to the park ... waiting for Friday - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteMaybe the local pet store next time-here they trim them for a small fee and even give the doggy a treat-always listen to those creepy feelings!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to share your book on my blog today and leave the cover on. WE'll see if I know what I'm doing!!!! Barb
ReplyDeleteOMG this is so funny and exactly what I did to our pug Sammy. First and last time I ever clipped his nails. Too close and blood everywhere, all over our new cream colored carpet. Who in their right mind buys cream colored carpet. Then I dipped his nailes in flour then we had blood and flour all over the house. Him running all over in pain and me crying. our daughter crying and hubby on the phone saying are you trying to cut off his foot!!!! Finally got it stopped bleeding and never again attempted to cut the nails of any animal. I'm not even good at cutting my toenails as I'm sitting here looking at a bandaid on my right toenail!!!! Hugs.
ReplyDeleteWait...a dog can bleed to death over a bad nail trim? OMG. That's terrifying! I always let the groomer handle that, after doing the same thing you did with my first dog. Although he didn't bleed--so I guess it wasn't quite that close. Just close enough for him to let out a loud yelp and never trust me to cut his nails again!
ReplyDelete