On Thursday Rogue (our black lab) went off to be spayed. For a regular dog, this can be a traumatic experience. That seems predictable and normal. But for Rogue…
We got Rogue when she was 8 weeks old. Since that time, she has been ingrained so much with the family that that animal can NOT be by herself for one minute without whining. It used to drive me crazy but I have gotten used to it in the last year. We used to be able to let out Bandit (our first black lab) and he’d go lay outside for awhile and enjoy the sun/shade and just being outside – without barking and causing a scene. NOT ROGUE.
Rogue goes out and does her business and then immediately makes a beeline right back to the door. And there she sits and begins her whining campaign to come in the house. If we are outside she is fine. But God forbid she is outside by herself for any period of time and the whining and crying begins. I will say that because I had a hard time dealing with this quirk of hers initially (read that as a lot of yelling out the window to stop whining), she has been forced to develop a more patient “sit and wait a little bit” stance before the full onslaught of whines begin. I think she can make it to 5 minutes before I hear a bark to be let in. So I’ve just adjusted and she has adjusted. In the morning, I will either wait for her to be done or walk away and start my coffee and come back and let her in right away.
Now, take this mindset into being away from us for a day and a half…. When I picked up Rogue at the vet yesterday, the lady at the front desk told me that Rogue was quite vocal on Thursday after her surgery. Now I read “quite vocal” as the polite way of saying “she was annoying as all hell and would NOT shut up and drove us crazy all day long”… but for obvious reasons she wasn’t going to say exactly that to me. They had told Rick when he dropped her off that she would sleep all day after the surgery. Riiiight. He told them that he thought we might have to come and get her early because she has major separation anxiety. Suffice it to say we were right and she whined and barked all day – no sleeping and no resting.
Last night the kids stayed with Grandma for a sleepover. We thought this would give Rogue another 16 hours or so of not being pestered by the kids – maybe she’d even sleep. HA! While she was thrilled to see us, she really wanted to see the kids. Throughout the night she woke us up several times with her whining. At 2am, Rick thought she might just be in a lot of pain and we gave her another pain pill. She settled for a bit but in another hour or so she was back at it. So Rick got up and went in the back room and laid down with her. Yes… laid down with the dog. LOL! She did settle down and I didn’t hear her again until 8am or so (we get to sleep in when sleepovers happen). Rick said that she was fine as long as she had physical contact laying next to him.
This morning the kids have returned and Rogue has been estatic. By the way she is acting you would never think she was spayed two days ago. We are going to have such a hard time keeping her calm for the next two weeks.
She does seem very relieved though. Enough to be calm for a brief period… this is what is happening as I type this
She seems content – enough to maybe get a bit of rest today. Maybe. Hopefully.