Another Little Moment to Remember: And She Was...

A quick story today.

Yesterday, I took the dog to the vet to have her stitches removed. It was two weeks since the surgery and I was able to keep the cone on her head for the entire time. As a result, the incision healed beautifully.

The first few days living with her and the cone were heartbreaking. We don't have the most open living space, and Hershey was crashing that cone into everything. It would scare the shit out of her...every time. Teaching her to go up the stairs was interesting, she would get stuck every time until she finally learned to pick her head up as she ascended. Outdoors wasn't much fun either. Banging on street signs, hitting the ground...she was not happy. Could you blame her?

By the second week she had adjusted reasonably well. Actually she handled it better than any other dog I have owned. She learned how to use it as a weapon...really. If she wanted a little attention...bang, she would come crashing into you. If she was hungry...boom, right into my kneecap. We were all very ready for the conehead experiment to be history.

As she is used to being a traveling dog, she was more than happy to get in the car for a change of scenery. The stitches were removed, the cone taken off and back into the car for the drive home. Normally she is fairly good in the car. She will lie down, get up to change position, but if you tell her to, she will go back down. Yesterday, not so much.

She would not listen. I kept yelling at her and she kept ignoring me. I didn't quite get it until I turned around and looked at her. Her tail was wagging, her eyes were wide open and she was smiling. Yes, she was smiling. If you've ever owned a dog, you know when they are happy and other times when they smile.

She stood in the back and just looked out the window and took in all the sights that were hidden from her field of vision while she was wearing the cone. She just smiled.

So I stopped yelling...and I smiled too.

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