Animals can be a pain in the...

After work yesterday, I picked up Katie from school and took her to soccer practice. It was ridiculously cold and windy for April, and I forgot my coat. Luckily I had an extra sweatshirt in the truck. Anyway, practice ended a little early, and we headed home only to find a pile of dog poo from TJ, our 15 year old lab mix. Not his fault, I always have to remind myself as I clean up the mess. He just can't hold it anymore. I got the dogs' dinner ready while they were outside. Soon after they thundered in and began scoffing down kibble, I noticed some blood drips on the floor. Looking around, it was easy to identify the source: the tip of TJ's tail. He must have caught it on something in his rush into the kitchen and tore a chunk open. There was a quickly-growing puddle of blood forming under his tail as he ate. I grabbed some vetwrap and gauze (which of course was handy thanks to the frequent bandage changes of the greyhound's broken leg) and did a quick wrap of the tail until I could shuttle him outside. When they finished their dinner, I ran them all out and went to work cleaning. When I was satisfied with the disapperance of the blood spots, I went to check on the dogs outside. TJ had slipped off the quick wrap and wagged all over the back porch spewing blood all over the side of the light gray house. UGH. I fetched more vetwrap and gauze and wedged him between my already blood stained knees to bandage his tail all the way up the the top. I knew it needed elasticon to stay on, but my next priority was washing off the house and deck. So I proceeded to hose off the side of the house on the terribly blustery day. Upon completion, the dogs and I went back inside. I had missed a call from my daughter's riding instructor, so I sat down for a minute to call her back. She had come by earlier in the day to pick up my Katie's pony Sandy to borrow her for a riding lesson, and she had called to give me an update. Kelly got home while I was on the phone, and in TJ's excitement, the tail wrap came flying off again. Blood all over the kitchen AGAIN. This time, with Kelly's help, I got the elasticon over the third wrap, and we cleaned the kitchen AGAIN and treated the blood stains on our clothes so I could do an unexpected load of laundry.

I went out to feed the horses later and Rosie has decided to play the I-wonder-what-kind-of-game-she'll-play-with-me-if-I'm-on-my-hind-legs game. She soon learned that I play the I-don't-let-horses-get-up-on-their-hind-legs-around-me game. She gave up pretty quickly and settled for scratches and pets. But she started anew this morning. This time bigger and stronger. So I got bigger and stronger. I never scared her, but I think she got the idea by the second or third time. We'll see what's next...