Nicky Furniss
They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks… but that certainly doesn’t stop them from learning them on their own.
As I sit down to write this letter, I have just gotten back from taking my pug, Ramona, to the vet.This is a bi-monthly visit as Ramona refuses to allow us to cut her nails. She loathes it so much that on the rare occasion we have tried to soothe, bribe and cajole her into it, neither she, nor we have come away from the encounter unscathed.
My vet assures me that this is a “pug thing” (and not due to bad parenting as claimed by a dog trainer I met once), and as Ramona gets so worked up, there is a risk she could experience cardiac arrest. Thus, every two months, I drop her off at the vet where she gets sedated in preparation for her “paw-dicure”.
A few months ago, I booked Ramona in for her nails and dropped her off as usual, though – thanks to lockdown and its financial stressors – I had left it a little longer than usual between appointments. There was no way to avoid it, though, and when it was time to fetch her, I went back armed with my credit card, resigned to the fact that I would be paying it off for a while.
When I got there, however, I found the receptionist beaming at me, and as they brought Ramona out, she exclaimed: “She was so good today, she let us cut her nails without sedation!” Not only was I thrilled that she didn’t need to be medicated, but she also saved me R500 in the process! I like to think that she knew in her own way that money was tight, so she played her part to help us out.
I wasn’t sure she would play ball again, though, so this morning we stuck to the usual routine of skipping her breakfast in preparation for her sedation, before I dropped her off at the vet. Pretty sure the previous time had been a happy fluke, I went back a few hours later armed once again with my credit card, and once again was met by a beaming receptionist and a pug who looked quite pleased with herself! Another R500 saved, a proud furbaby mum, and a quietly optimistic hope that this will become the new normal.
This isn’t the first time she’s surprised us this year, though. At the beginning of December we went to our favourite cottage in Underberg for the weekend – a place our dogs love due to the little stream that runs nearby which they both love pottering around in.
On this visit, for the first time, though, we walked down to the nearby dam, and my partner, Tim, decided to take one of the kayaks out. As he did, both dogs swam out after him, though both quickly turned around once they realised that they were out of their depth. Sunny, our Africanis, is a fairly adept swimmer, so she swam out several times more as Tim paddled along the curve of the dam, while Ramona stayed on the shore with me.
When Tim came back, I hopped onto the kayak with him, left the dogs with my parents and headed off into the middle of the dam. We had been paddling for about five minutes when I heard a splash. Sunny was still on the shore, so I shouted to my mother:“Mum, where’s Moni?”
“She’s there!”Tim pointed as a tiny head emerged from the reeds on the side of the dam, and headed straight for us!
My heart was in my mouth as swimming is definitely not a pug thing, and I was fully prepared to leap in and rescue her.Tim paddled us swiftly in her direction, but by the time we met each other, she had swum a good 10 m or more and was doing a pretty good job of it! Now, I don’t think that she’ll suddenly become an aquatic animal, but I love how she threw herself into a task that she had never done before, and did it by sheer willpower. And I love the fact that she can still surprise me… even after eight years. And I am hoping that 2021 will do the same. We’re, admittedly, all a little shell-shocked from the year past, but I hope that, despite this, we still face this one head on, and with gusto. And that, while there will be downs as well as ups, that we surprise ourselves and each other – in all the best ways – as we do.
Happy New Year! Nicky