Ixchel Sees the Doctor

Last Saturday, Ixchel saw her vet.  Does that mean we have another 6 weeks of puppy?

Not much has happened since I reported on our snowfall earlier this week.  But I promised a 2nd post to make up for not posting last week.

When we first got Ixchel we promised each other two things.  First, we’d get her microchipped and second, we’d get her spayed.  While we don’t imagine she’ll ever run free, or be allowed access to intact male dogs, accidents happen.

So, this past Friday at 8 am, we took our little lady to the veterinarian to be spayed.  While we were there we wanted to have her microchip implanted (we’d been told that the needle they use to implant was quite large and it would probably hurt her a bit, so we asked to have it done while she was anesthetized.)  The other operation we wanted done at the same time was to have her dew claws removed.  Most of our “Dachshund owning friends” had advised us to do this.  However, it turns our our veterinarian advises against it, so we chose to go along with him (actually he doesn’t advise against it so much as he recommends it only be done when the pups are REALLY young.  Apparently 6 months isn’t REALLY young.

Now, you may recall that Friday last week was the day we were waiting for snowmageddon to strike.  I called the vet, as advised, about 3 in the afternoon.

“Oh, yes, Ixchel (she pronounced it icks CHELL) came through her operation just fine!  In fact, she’s sitting up in her cage with her tail going a million miles an hour!  She’s the cutest dog here!”  Yes, of COURSE she is… she’s the cutest dog ANYWHERE… but I decided to keep that gem to myself (here I apologize to all my dog owning friends… sorry folks, I cannot tell a lie!)

“And she’ll be ready tomorrow?” I ask.

“Oh, yes.  You can pick her up anytime after 10 am.  We close at 3 pm.  But if the weather makes it too hard to get here by 3, call us.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I say, “I’ve got a BIGOLE truck with four wheel drive… there ain’t nuttin stopping me from getting there by 10!”  I put on a bit of hill billy twang when I start talking truck… it just goes with the territory!

And so, sure ’nuff, at 10 am, Saturday morning Scott and I arrived at the Vet, ready to pick up our “little darlin'”.  We chatted about something, I honestly don’t recall what, while we waited for the techs to bring Ixchel out to us.  We had a waiting room filled with an audience by the time the technician came in to the lobby holding – I should say “attempting to hold” – Ixchel.  When she saw us, she went from placid to SQUIRMONSTER” (that’s the combination of “squirm” and “monster”, don’t’cha know?) instantaneously.  Everyone in that waiting room broke out with the giggles!  And of course, Daddy put aside his “hill billy truck talk” and went straight to little doggy-ese!

“Ooooh, how’s my yittle gurl? huh?  OOOoh, Daddy sure did mis his yittle bug!”  Okay, I’m not proud of it.  We generally keep our “Puppy talk” for the privacy of our home… but hey, this was a big deal!

She’s come through her operation with flying colors!  The incision site is not at all red or even very pink… it’s a nice healthy color!  She gets her stitches out NEXT weekend.

And all is right at the Hays-Strom household!