bean and the bard

Yes, for the first time in her life, Bean had to wear the dreaded E-collar. I came home on Wednesday to find blood on the couch in the office (the one she is allowed on). I checked her paws and the dew claw on her front left paw was a bloody mass of nastiness. Seriously? It looked like she had stepped in some raw hamburger meat or something. So, off to the vet for some expensive surgery (they ended up taking off the whole claw), and when Bryan picked her up on Wednesday night, she was wearing this. I think she looks very Shakespearean in the photo above, don't you?
In this picture you can see her bandaged paw. She had to keep it and the E-collar on for 3 days, and yesterday (Saturday) we released her. She is full of energy and as good as new, which is slightly disappointing. We were hoping for maybe a few more days of down-time before she got back to her usual crazy self.
"When you don't share your pizza crusts with me mommy, it makes my paw hurt."

Since her wound could have had something to do with the fact that we don't clip her nails (she has eaten several nail trimmers), the guilt was a little overwhelming. We dealt with this by hand feeding her bananas and pizza crusts, carrying her up and down the stairs whenever she wanted, and letting her sleep in the bed with us.

Those of you who share the bed with your dogs on a regular basis, my hats off to you. It was the worst sleep of my whole life. She had to sleep with her head (with big plastic E-collar) on Bryan and her big fat butt on me. The weight of it pretty much forced me to lie in the same position all night, and I was achy all the next day. But, what could we do? The first time we saw her try to run into her crate for bed and bounce back because the E-collar wouldn't fit was friggin hysterical. But the eighth time was just heart breaking.

every breath you-ou take...every move you-ou make...

every bond you break

every step you take

I'll be watching you.

Bean has just recently realized that she is tall enough to stand up and look out the front windows. Whenever she sees anything potentially harmful to us - a squirrel, the mailman, the neighborhood children, a leaf - she starts shrieking like a little girl until I go check it out. After I look out the window I say "What did you see? Did you find a leaf? Look! It's gone! You scared it away! What a good girl!! Who's mommy's sweet little guard dog? It's Bean!! Oh yes it is!!" She gets all wiggly and excited, I go back to what I was doing, and she resumes her post at the window.

Fun? You have no idea.

boo

Thanks to approximately one half pound of dog biscuits*, I am delighted to present to you...

BatBean


Happy Halloween!

(And I would be doing you a disservice if I did not send to over to have a look at Shelby's picture.)

*I had to do it on my own since Bryan refused to take any part in this. He says it's demeaning to Bean. Whatever. This is a dog that will happily run up to company, throw her back paw up over her head, and commence a very loud session of what I will only describe here as "self-love."