Laid Bare

Poor Dusty. 

All dignity is gone. 

We were up early this morning, walking by the light of a slip of a moon and the bright morning star. Wow. It made me think of Jesus getting up while it was still dark in order to speak with his Father in heaven. 

My reason was rather more mundane. Dusty needed to do her ‘business’ before I slipped her a sedative. Because Dusty has grown increasingly hysterical with age, and cannot abide the Vet. Now I know many dogs can’t stand a trip to the Vet, but Dusty has taken this to a whole new level. 

We’d been for the annual check up in July but she was beyond belief and the vet took our word for it that she was fine. But then we found a couple of spots we were uncertain about, and besides, her long hair was in a terrible twist behind the ears and matt behind the rump, so she needed a little tidy up. 

I quite like my little trips to the beauty shop. An enforced hour just sitting reading a mindless mag and sipping (not very good) coffee. Followed by an emptying of the wallet. Well, I thought my hairdresser was dear but Dusty’s tidy-up, plus the vet’s peek and diagnosis that the spots were actually just innocuous warts, cost a bomb. 

Money well-spent? Not if you ask Dusty!

When the vet’s receptionist called about three hours later, she explained it had taken the brute strength of the groomer and the vet’s nurse together to wrestle the ‘sedated’ dog into submission and shave her nether regions and clip behind the ears, and there was just no way she would tolerate a pedicure. So the long nails remain.

They were all exhausted but smiling when I picked her up. And she, the sedated dog, dragged me out the door, eager to dive into any car just as long as it sped away from the scene of her torment. 

If only she could understand that we were doing it for her own good. But how can I explain it to her when she doesn’t really listen, and when she does, all she listens for is ‘walk’, ‘cheese’, ‘bone’, or ‘pigs’ ear’. 

I don’t suppose there are any parallels with the way I am with God. Never listening, and when I do, only tuned to hear ‘yes’ and ‘I love you’. 

Good thing God never tires of saying those things.

And tonight Dusty has probably earned herself a treat.