Carpet day

MAN what a day. This morning, Charlie was scheduled for spaying which I've been dreading, to say the least. I don't know about you guys, but I tend to abuse Google just a teeny tiny bit whenever I have to make a big decision or whenever I worry about something. Let's just say that the past couple of months, I've probably googled everything that could possibly have anything to do with spaying or neutering, and I've been changing my mind back and forth up until the very last minute. Let me start by saying that neutering and spaying is something that's considered pretty normal in Italy and in other south european countries. There are many mixed breed litters born here every single day, and many of the pups end up being put down or dropped off at a dog pound (I've visited one and believe me, it was not very pleasant). Andrea's also been feeding me horror stories (unfortunately true ones) about puppies being left to die in boxes on the highway in the south of Italy. Let's not start thinking about that one. Anyways. Veterinarians here generally prefer to do the procedure before or just after the first heat and our vet, a very pleasant man, has been asking us since our first visit about our plans for Charlie. It might sound terrible, but I kind of understand why the Italian veterinarians have such a positive attitude towards neutering considering they probably have to put down perfectly healthy pups all the time. Our no 1 reason for doing this, is to prevent a number of possibly lethal diseases associated with unfixed dogs. Since we chose to do this when Charlie's still kind of young, the risk of her getting some of these have been reduced to almost zero. We also know that she was at actual risk of getting theses infections and diseases because of her physiology and with that knowledge, it felt like the right thing to do. We also know that we don't want her to have pups because we're both kind of emotional about lady C (me more so than A) and there is no way in hell we could ever give away her future pups and not get to control what their lives will be like. With that said, I've still had sooo many doubts about doing this. It's not really considered ok to spay a healthy dog in Sweden and people (read: dog "experts" who have nothing else going on in their lives but posting mean stuff on dog forums) generally  disapprove of this procedure, unless the dog is already sick with cancer. There's lots of philosophy and ethics baked in to all of this, and no matter how you twist or turn it, there'll always be arguments from both sides that sound reasonable and well thought through.

Enough said. We did it, and I've been spending all day with her on the carpet, resting. This is actually the worst part of this entire procedure for me because I can see that she's in pain, she hates the cone (of shame) and that she's extremely tired and a bit sick from the anesthesia. She's not allowed to eat or drink and she's just absolutely nothing like the energetic, happy, silly dog I dropped off at the vet's this morning. Yeah about that. She loves going to the vet. She absolutely adores him. Maybe because he kind of looks like a younger, not so rough, more good looking Clive Owen. And he always lets her lick his face as much as she wants. I'm getting a bit off track here. But you get the picture. I'll be hanging out on the carpet for as long as she needs me. I tried watching the Twilight movie while doing it but it oh-so-god-awful-terribly bad that I just couldn't go through with it.

Anyways. That'll be my exciting Friday night. I might have to add a glass of wine to this misery. I hope you have a more sparkling evening planned, wherever you are. And I hope that the world's loveliest dog is a bit more like her self when I wake up tomorrow morning. Pin It