A Cautionary Tale

The Quan is coming to visit this weekend so we've been trying to get some things straightened and cleaned up around here. Not that Quan would be upset if we didn't, its just that I inherited this thing from my maternal lineage that requires me to scrub the house before anyone visits.

On the list of things to do was cleaning the dog. He needed a bath, he needed to have his ears cleaned, and he needed to have his nails clipped. He hates having his nails clipped, and I hate him when I try to do it and he is a pill. So, off to Petsmart I sent him.

I think something bad happened at Petsmart.

When we went to pick him up he was crying/howling/barking constantly, and he didn't know we were there. Then, we had the brilliant idea of putting him in a shopping cart so that he wouldn't get dirty or wet walking through the snow/ice/water/oil covered parking lot - he jumped out! (reminder, my dog is 14 inches tall) So Frank carried him the rest of the way to the car. On the drive home he wouldn't look at us or interact with us at all, very much like an angry teenager. Then when we got home we gave him a raw hide as a mea culpa and all seemed well again. Until he came upstairs to see us in the office, and as I was stroking his cute head, he let loose and tinkled all over the floor! He was immediately sent outside, and a few minutes later when I looked out the window to check on him, he was eating something that he should not have been eating! (it wasn't snow...)

Frank and I think something happened at Petsmart. He is acting drugged or abused, or both and we aren't too pleased. So, no more Petsmart for Hamilton, we'll go somewhere else - maybe somewhere where I can see the entire process start to finish and they don't take 4 hours for a bath.

He is sleeping again now and I think we'll take him on a nice walk this evening just to get some life back into him. Poor guy - none of this would have happened if he weren't such a pain in the rear when it comes to nail clipping.