I loved the new dog…until today. Today, I have had it. It was his first trip to the vet, and I had to take him myself because Keith had to work. I thought it would be fairly easy. Before Keith left for work, he helped me load him up. Jackson was reluctant to get in the car because I guess he’s scared that we might be taking him back to the shelter. Understandable. The ride there was just fine. He lounged across the back seat and didn’t try to get up front, didn’t get in my face, etc. He was just being such a good dog.
But once we got to the vet it was a different story. He first refused to get out of the car, and made it quite impossible for me to get him out. He spread out all his legs and somehow seemed to make himself heavier. I did successfully heft him out of the back seat, but not without trouble. And then I couldn’t get my purse because he kept pulling back and I was afraid he would slip out of the harness. (subtle foreshadowing here…) I left my purse, took him in and they shut him in an exam room so that I could retrieve my purse and his shelter paperwork.
When we opened the door to the exam room, the nurse said, “whoops, looks like someone’s had an accident.” The poor nurse then proceeded to clean Jackson’s giant pile of poo and puddle of urine off the floor. It smelled nice in there for sure. The vet walked in and said, “wow, that’s a healthy stool.” I wanted to DIE! Seriously, please tell me someone else has been embarrassed by their dog at the vet!
So the exam went along ok. Jackson kept jumping on the vet, who seemed to have a short fuse for jumping. It probably didn’t help that he kept jumping and putting his big paws all over the countertops, almost knocking over specimens of some sort in the process. Needless to say, he was a bit out of control. I finally calmed him down enough to hear the entire spill about heart worms, which was just terrible. Even thiough Jackson tested negative for heartworms in November, it takes six months for them to incubate and show up on a test. So…if he was stung by an infected mosquito in in July or August, it wouldn’t show on the test. Basically, just because he tested negative in November doesn’t mean he’s actually negative. We’ll start the heartworm preventative, but we’ll have to have him tested again in July to make sure. Great.
So after paying $130 for the visit, plus the preventative, I gathered my dog and started the dreaded trip back to the car. I knew this would be rough. I had the keys in my car door and was just going to toss my purse in the front seat, scoop him up and put him in the car. However,when I tried to get the door open, he backed his head out of the harness before I could stop him. He then just stepped out of the harness and bolted…thankfully not toward the highway. There are some houses behind the vet’s office, and he made a run for those. I took off after him, and let me tell you, he was running as hard as he could. It was like a bad movie, and I’m sure the people who saw me tear through their yard following my crazy dog got a great kick out of it. I kept saying, “Jackson, Jackson, Jackson, Jaaaccckkksssooon! He would not stop for anything. And just like in the movies, I crouched down to get him to come to me, he sped past, I tried to reach out and grab him and I fell flat on my face. FLAT on my face. I decided to just lay there and act like I was crying, and to be honest, I wasn’t far from it. This got his attention, and he got close enough that I could grab him. I carried this heavy, 53-pound dog back to the car, and I swear we were a pretty good distance away. Once we got near the car, he started squirming. But I managed to man-handle him into the vehicle, where I sat and panted for 20 minutes. Keith is taking him on the next vet trip. For today, and maybe even for the weekend, I am done with him. He can sit in the backyard and howl.
