Dogless in Goobertown

We woke up dogless this morning.

That’s because Jack and Pete are at the vet’s kennel facility until we pick them up at 4:30 p.m. today.

I dropped them off Friday afternoon before we left town for the Arkansas APME meeting in Heber Springs.

The dogs are my alarm clock. I get up to the sound of Pete shaking his head and jingling his collar tags – his signal that he wants to go out. If I wait long enough, I’ll hear Jack repeat the signal from the crate where he sleeps.

Once they’re out in the back yard, my next task is to fill the food bowl in Jack’s kitchen kennel. Then they come in and I give Pete his liver and thyroid medications.

Not seeing their smiling faces and having that part of my morning routine suspended feels very awkward.

Pete and Jack are a very real presence in this house and it feels empty and incomplete without them.

That’s Jack on the left in the photo. Since Pete developed a thyroid deficiency, his coat has thinned and dulled. Seeing them side-by-side gives the impression that Jack is in color and Pete is almost in black-and-white.

Dr. Heather Curry is the vet who diagnosed Pete’s thyroid problem and put him on the appropriate medication on March 1. His health and disposition have improved dramatically since then and he’s lost most of his extra weight. I thanked her for helping him when I dropped the dogs off Friday and she told me the coat is the last thing to respond to the medication, but that we can expect his looks to improve over time.