In other news, this has been a tumultuous week for Penelope. We spent Sun/Mon in Gloucester, where she experienced her first ocean kayak and beach trip. She did surprisingly well in the kayak and even went for a few frantic swims. The busy weekend, however, left her exhausted and a bit off her schedule. I decided to get up extra early and give her an early morning walk, too, which actually made things worse. We were up almost all Wednesday night with her panting, panting, sprawled out on the hardwood floor of the bedroom, trying to stay cool. It was then that it was decided that Penny needs a shave.
I called our local groomer and asked him what to do. He assured me that most owners shave their Poms for the summer because it just becomes unbearable. In March/April, I was frequently running 3-5 miles with Penny - last weekend she stopped short during mile 1 and looked at me with despair in her eyes. It had to be done. Joe (the groomer) encouraged me to look at some pictures on the internet so I could be ready. I was horrified at what I found:
Now remember, neither of these are Penny. Just ideas. So while I made an appointment for her to be groomed, I was nervous and Chris was just plain scared.
I work with two people connected to Penny's family, and both of them approached me last week begging to know if/when we were planning to shave off Penny's luxurious locks. Both of them had experienced the same night panting but none of us wanted to be the first to bite the bullet. My boss, however, has a shaved Pomeranian, and out of the kindness of her heart brought the dog to work to put my fears to rest. She looked really cute, almost like a little bear/fox. Maybe this will be okay, I thought.
I got out of work early on Friday and decided to scoot to the pet store with Penny to pick up some supplies for my sister's dog, Rainey, who arrives tomorrow. While there we looked for her favorite treats, a peanut-butter jerky nugget called Zukes. They didn't have them. Seeing my disappointment, the helpful salesman handed me two sample packs of what he delicately called "doggy crack." Penny was hooked. She rarely sits when we ask her to but was suddenly handing over her delicate paw to this crack-wielding stranger. I guess the treat is bits of beef liver which dogs just cannot live without. So I bought some.
We got home, she ate her dinner, and then I did some more training with her using the crack as incentive. She was doing great! Chris was so surprised at her progress that he fed her the rest of the second sample pack. All was well until that night...
At about 2am, Chris awoke to hear Penny whining. She often does this if she wants to go downstairs for a drink of water in the middle of the night, but she didn't run right down as usual. She whined at Chris who, in his sleepy stupor, ignored her. Fast forward to Saturday morning. I woke up to three piles of vomit in the bedroom and a few other unsavory piles on the downstairs kitchen rug. Poor Penny skulked around looking guilty when really it was our own fault. The funny thing is, though, that she chose not to, ahem, relieve herself in the bedroom - she begged Chris to go out (we now know), and when he didn't take her out, she went in one very specific place. At her old home, we know that she was newspaper trained - how smart of her to make the connection between the paper and our kitchen rug! She could have made a massive mess but kept it to one area. We love this dog.
The grooming appointment got moved to Sunday, so she had Saturday to recover from her belly trouble. This morning was her Waterloo. While the cut is a shock, it will grow in to be really cute and it's already making a difference in her energy/comfort level. It was a dramatic week for Penny and I hope this helps her chill out! :)
Before...
After!!
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