Posted on October 27, 2011 by: WayCoolDogs

He was very weak when they brought him in, and his coat was dry and matted, so after a couple of days on the drip to build up his strength, he was bathed and trimmed down, and started to feel lots better. I actually got confused, as I had been looking after a smallish white dog in that cage and went automatically to open it up.  It was only when I had him out on my shoulder that I realized he was (1) much heavier that the little girl I was accustomed to, and (2) a male. 

When I checked it out, the other dog had gone home, so there I found myself with a very excited Maxie licking my face and telling me how happy he was to be taken outside. I put him down and he frolicked like a little sheep, bouncing up and down as if he had his own private trampoline. 

I sat under a tree and let him go right to the end of the long leash, and there I watched him leaping and springing and enjoying himself, till suddenly he ran out of steam, found his way back to me and put his front feet up on my legs.  As I reached across to stroke the side of his head he let go of my leg and curled both front paws around my wrist, with a mischievous look on his face that said “I’ve got you now, you’re my prisoner . . . “

That turned out to be his signature gesture, as I usually lifted him up on my right hip, and he would immediately clasp my left wrist, holding on as tight as he could. 

Maxie had a problem with his right eye, a small ulcer that had to be removed, and so said so done. He was quite out of it for a day till he recovered from the anaesthetic, and then he was clamouring to come out of his cage again.  He was already quite a handful to get out of the cage because he was just so excited and his little paws would flail  as fast as a hummingbird’s wings, he was so worked up.  With the Elizabethan collar on it was even more difficult, as I had to manoeuver the leash all the way around the collar and not just around his woolly head. 

It got so that I was forced to ask someone else to open the cage and support him while I got the leash organized, otherwise I was afraid he was going to leap down to the ground and hurt himself.  Coming back later and being returned to the cage was never a problem, because by then he was mellow and cuddly, and I could easily remove the leash and nudge him inside. 

He recovered quickly from the surgery but they were worried he would scratch at his eye, so the dreaded collar had to stay on.  It was very tight, and he hated it, but I found a way, if I could manoeuver him at the right angle (naturally, with his paws wrapped around my wrists), to get both my hands inside the collar and around his head, so I could massage his ears and neck, and this helped a lot, so that not even the collar managed to dampen his spirits. 

Eventually, when the stitches were out and the eye fully healed, they figured that he could be trusted not to scratch, and he was freed of the collar – great jubilation! – and like the good boy that he was, he didn’t show the slightest interest in messing with it. 

By the time his owner came back for him, you could hardly tell that anything had been done to the eye (although I’m sure it showed on the bill!).

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Guest Post by Cindi Scholefield, a volunteer at the local animal shelter in Kingston, Jamaica. For any donations to Cindi and her dogs, please send to:
Eunice Crompton-Nicholas
c/o
Harry Dufour
9330 Dunhill Drive
Miramar
Florida 33025-3869

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