The Kimbro Blog

Ouch

Yesterday was quite the scary day here at Casa del Dork. It involved a trip to the puppy emergency room and a possibility of a life threatening problem. It all worked out in the end, though.

I'll spare you the disgusting details and just give you a quick description. At some point in the last few days Kimbro hoovered up a twig. Normally, this is not a big deal, and Ali has several stories of dogs eating and passing the damndest things. In this case, however, it didn't quite work like that. In fact, said twig got stuck on the way out, causing Kimbro no small amount of discomfort.

The cause(the twig) wasn't readily apparent to the eye, leading the vets to make a preliminary diagnosis that was grim indeed, and required surgery to attempt to fix. While the hospital was waiting for the surgeon to arrive, Ali and I were burning up the phone lines getting in touch with CCI and their in-house vet.

When the surgeon arrived, she did a thorough exam (ouch) and found the twig. It was removed without surgery, and everything seems to be getting back to normal. He stayed at the hospital overnight, and we picked him up this morning. The check-up is on Friday, and then we'll learn if we're out of the woods.

He's got some meds he has to take, and an elizabethan collar to give the cats something to feel superior about. A long and scary day is over, and it's nap time once more.

Two steps forward, a whole bunch of flailing downward

There's something strangely musical - in a percussive sort of way - about the sound of a puppy missing that all-important front foot placement while navigating down a flight of stairs. Kind of a thumpity-thumpity-thump.

Don't worry, he's fine. I swear, if they could build cars out of the same material as puppies are made of, we'd never have to replace them.

Two more accidents today. He's totally silent about them. One minute he's chewing on his bone, the next there's a little present waiting on the carpet. Hopefully this is a short phase.

Ali and I got out for a nice dinner and he behaved admirably while we were gone. Having a puppy just reinforces our belief that neither of us are parental material. It's only been 4 days, and we're already looking for time away.

Lately we've worked out that I get the noon to two am shift, she gets the rest. That's why I'm sitting here typing instead of enjoying my nice new bed with my beautiful fiancee. Sigh. He'll be nodding off soon, I hope.

Monkey-boy

Day three dawns, and things improve minutely. He slept 6 hours over the night, only crying twice. Once for 10 minutes, once for 20. Boy, it's nice to sleep a little.

As may be intimated by the title, he's got a little habit we're learning about. He likes to talk. In specific, he likes to talk to himself. At great length. Sounding like a monkey. Ooks and everything.

It's a little annoying, and so closely resembles his "I need to pee" sounds that a couple accidents have occured. Oh well. Live and learn.

On a less pleasant note, he's developed a hatred for being locked in his crate. You'd think we were blending puppies, he screams so loud. That's something we're going to have to work on.

Sleep? Wazzat?

Up at 5am this morning. Ali took Kimbro out. God, I hope he starts sleeping through the night soon.

He's already learned his first trick: How to circumvent the gate. Now, when he gets really quiet, there's no relief for me. He's out somewhere in the house, destroying something and terrorising the cats.

We're gonna have to get a new gate. Maybe a trank gun (just kidding.)

I'm off to take a nap.

Beginnings

Ali and I had gotten rather too comfortable in our lives. We had free time (well, me more than her), we had spare cash, and we slept well at night. So we decided to fix those problems. Meet Kimbro.

Kimbro is a 7.5 week old Golden Retriever/Yellow Lab mix. We obtained this howling dervish through the good people at CCI by agreeing to raise him for a year and a half. We get to teach him all the things a dog needs to know to avoid becoming a slightly tacky throw rug or pair of mocassins, and he will go out into the world as an assistance dog, working with a handicapped person. It's all volunteer, in fact we pay for all expenses, but it's worth it. Puppies are fun, right?

Kimbro arrived at DIA at 10:30 last night from Oceanside, CA, where he was born. I picked him up from the nice people, loaded him into the car, and thought "This isn't so bad."

Before I could even remark on quietness, Kimbro reminded me why puppyhood is such a trying time. I got whined at on I-70, cried on at I-270, and was just giving up hope when a miracle occured. One of the stations out here plays an hour of electronica at 11pm everynight, and would you believe it knocked the little guy out in five minutes? Salvation through techno.

We arrived home at a little after midnight, brought all the gear indoors, and cooed over his all-encomapassing cuteness for a little while. Then it was bedtime. Kimbro disagreed.

He barked, yelped, cried, whined, and made strange monkey sounds until 3:30am, when I loaded him into his crate, grabbed a blanket and a pillow, and moved hellion and myself into the Rover. Yes, I slept in my car with the dog. Yay.

Up at 7, walk the dog, turn him over to Ali, and sleep until 1. Blah.

So endeth day 1.