#280
Little dogs and their teeth, man
In 2011 my husband and I rescued a little Italian greyhound named Maurice:
As you can see, he was perfection incarnate. He was about three years old and before we got him he had to have two or three teeth pulled. IGs are prone to bad teeth (“that’s the price you pay for that cute little face,” one vet told me) and you are really meant to brush their goddamned teeth every single day.
Maurice did let us brush his teeth but that didn’t prevent him from having two additional rounds of extractions, including one that was very extensive and quite traumatic for everyone. My current somewhat bigger Italian greyhound has been luckier in this regard, his little lightbulb head accommodates all his teeth very nicely and his cleanings are uneventful.
But I have a smaller dog and guess what, she is not so lucky!
For one thing it is hard to look in her mouth. She is so fearful at the vet that I often ask to put a muzzle on her. Sometimes, though, she is amenable to an exam and each of those times I have been told that her teeth were in decent nick. It was only earlier this year that the vet told me to schedule a cleaning, which I did last week, and they pulled TEN of her tiny little teeth and I am very sad on her behalf. Despite my dog dentist PTSD-induced worries she has really done very well, but now I have to think of a way to get this extra spicy dog to let me clean her teeth and I do not look forward to that, AT ALL.
As I have spent a lot of time on the couch with my recovering little dog next to me, I’ve been watching some television: Down Cemetery Road (worth it for Emma Thompson), Manhattan (about 10 years old and got a bump when Oppenheimer came out, not great but not the worst), and most recently Karen Pirie on BritBox.
I succumbed to this show’s constant promotion on Prime and to be honest, I’m not sure how I held out so long because the focus group for this was me: Karen Pirie is a detective sergeant in the Scottish Police Service who solves cold cases. For one thing, this show will definitely scratch my Scottish murder mystery itch until the new season of Shetland is available. For another, can I please know where DS Pirie got her coat?
The internet assures me she mostly wears this coat with Carhartt pants and Doc Marten ankle boots but I need to know about the coat. (Her other choices, such as sweater vests over polo shirts and an ever-present bum bag, I can take or leave.)
I suppose this much is obvious but between the dog-minding and screen-staring it occurred to me that I haven’t been doing much creating lately. Sorry to sound like such a wanker about it but I do much better, mental-health-wise, when I am plugging away at some artsy-fartsy bit of whatever.
I suppose you could count typing my lil stories here a creative activity, I even do it with my hands! but my hand lettering and knitting and quilting and watercolors have sat dormant for quite some time. Even the diamond painting kit has been shelved.
This happens from time to time, and it’s usually because I’ve convinced myself I don’t have the time. There is always something that needs doing around the house, something is always dirty or cluttered or askance in some way. Something always needs to be folded and put away. I’ve taken to selecting drawers and other clutter-collecting containers at random and dealing with them, which is “productive” enough, but why I’d rather do this than start piecing blocks for my next quilt, I have no idea.
I like my phone; I read a lot on it (actual books not just shitposts) and a lot of my friends and I conduct all-day conversations on it. But it also contains all the horrors and just a bunch of dumb shit that I don’t need to squeeze into the attic of my mind (speaking of things that need cleaning). I know the answer is to just “lose” my phone temporarily in a different room, which works quite well when I do it by accident. I never feel compelled to get out my phone when I go out to dinner with my husband. Maybe the answer is to just go out more? Sure, that’s definitely it. (Joking…mostly.)
The holidays is definitely not the time to drag all the crafting supplies out, but, perhaps decorating the house will suffice. I am partly dreading this because it always such a faff, but I know I will be glad of it when I can turn on all the Christmas lights in the early winter gloom.
In any event, thank you for allowing me to talk through this and sorry if you’re asleep.