Who would shoot a puppy?
A trip to the vet and an X-ray showed that she had something “radio dense” in her belly, so we went to the emergency vet for an ultrasound, which would give a more detailed picture.
A year ago this month we brought home a new dog, so it is probably time for an update. Éowyn has settled in nicely with the family and Finny, our older dog, seems to have resigned himself to having a smaller pest around. He even seems to like her.
The transition was not always easy. At first, she could be reactive around new people, especially children, and many things would inexplicably scare her. When we called her inside, sometimes she would panic, roll on her back, and pee everywhere.
Eventually she became bolder and settled into her routine. Every morning at a few minutes before seven, she starts pestering me, and if it is a school day we go upstairs so she can leap up on my son’s bed to wake him up. After that, she has to go outside and patrol the yard, a job she takes very seriously. If you drive down our street, she has probably watched the progress of your car to make sure you aren’t thinking of turning down our driveway.
If you drive a delivery vehicle, however, you are not allowed within a quarter mile of our house. This morning she barked loudly as our neighbors received a gas delivery, and she apparently sees herself as the scourge of UPS, Amazon, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service. Who knows what evil lurks in that passing panel van?
Although she spends a lot of her time keeping the world safe from rogue deliveries, she also has a sweet and cuddly side, and we are currently negotiating just how long a belly rub is supposed to last. I fear that her idea of a proper length is infinite. If Finny is getting attention, then she demands her own fair share of love, which is to say the greater share.
Last May she got sick. She threw up several times and stopped eating. I knew that we are not always diligent about not dropping things on the floor, and she was equally lax in controlling what things should go in her mouth, so I worried that she had eaten something that made her sick. A trip to the vet and an Xray showed that she had something “radio dense” in her belly, so we went to the emergency vet for an ultrasound, which would give a more detailed picture.
When the emergency vet called, there was an edge in her voice. “How long have you had her?” she asked me. I told her that she had been with us only a couple of months, her tone softened.
She explained that the object in the pup’s belly was a pellet. Someone had shot her when she was younger, and the pellet was still lodged there. It was not doing any harm — it was not in any vital organ — and her illness was not related to the pellet at all. She had probably just eaten something that disagreed with her.
I realized that the vet at first thought I might have been the one who shot her, but the wound was old enough to let me off the hook. Since then, I have been equally enraged and bewildered. Who could shoot a puppy? Given Éowyn’s fearful reaction around children, I imagine a child probably did it.
I could turn this into a story about the wonderfully resilient nature of dogs and how they can still love and trust humans even after experiencing trauma. I could, but instead, I’ll just encourage you to hug your pets and teach your children the valuable lessons of empathy and kindness.