My dog has no pants.
Posted 5/12/2008 4:49 PM PDT
Recently my dog underwent TPLO surgery. For those of you unfamiliar with our story I urge you to read up on it here.
So, while I commend the medical staff at Berkeley Dog and Cat for prepping us for just about every post-op obstacle out there, they failed to address some secondary complications. For instance, the public embarrassment.
Right now it looks like my dog has no pants.
This was fine when I had to carry him down the stairs, help him walk with a sling, and have him confined to a crate or tie down 24/7. If anything, the fresh shave job emphasized the fact that he was crippled. It brought his pathetic state to a new level and squeezed sympathy out of even the most hardened hearts.
But now we've been cleared for light exercise. This means we get to start taking walks again, Paco can come in the car, and life begins to return to normal. The only problem is that nobody seems to have told his butt the news. It looks as pathetic and naked as before. And the fact his muscles have atrophied due to 6 weeks of no exercise only brings the point home.
Call me shallow, but I take pride in how my dog looks. I keep his weight down, his muscle tone up, and deck him out in fancy collars. When we roll down the street, I'm used to people hanging out the windows and yelling, "That's a nice lookin' dog!" and, if I'm lucky, they add, "and you ain't too bad yourself!"
But that's over now. I see people eyeballing us, as we make our slow return into the public realm of the street. I see their reactions as they take us in, get excited and prime themselves to hoot and holler, and then their faces fall as they try and make sense of the naked behind as it comes into full view. I can only wonder what's going through their heads since, to a lot of folks, the idea of surgery on a dog is ludicrous.
I suppose we have to choice until it grows in. Until then, I think I'll make him wear his pants more often:
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