Time to Spay

So many people go on and on about spaying and neutering your animals. No one ever tells you how difficult it may be to bring your beloved pet to the veterinarians office and leave it there to go through a surgery that is not medically necessary. Does that mean that I am against spaying or neutering animals? No, not at all. It is just that it is a hard process to go through for some - me being one of those people.

This morning started off normal enough. We woke up bright and early and headed to the girls' bedroom. (Yes, our Labs have their own bedroom) They were let out of their crates and eagerly gave us our good mornings - Dakota with her big stretch, followed by her wagging her butt even faster as she sees my husband, and Cheyenne with her energetic jumping, followed by loads of kissing and her biting at Dakota's face.

We lead the girls outside to run off some energy and do their morning ritual when Cheyenne looks at me and waits for those small by great words: "Who wants to eat?" She sat there waiting for what seemed to be an eternity and the words never came from my mouth. Alas, I could not speak them for I could not feed my baby Lab. She was getting spayed today and could not eat after midnight. My heart broken and then my mind wandered into thoughts about how I was going to entertain her until she was dropped off at the veterinarian clinic at 8am.

Ice cubes and peanut butter! Okay, so peanut butter is a food but not when you put the smallest of smears deep inside a Kong toy! That kept her busy for a while and afterwards she was entertained with ice cubes. Yes, water was allowed! Thank goodness because I couldn't think of anything else that she wouldn't eat (even if it wasn't consumable!).

This whole time, Dakota is trying to figure out what is going on because she wasn't being fed either. Well, I couldn't go feeding one in front of the other now, could I? So, while I kept the girls busy outside playing, my husband filled a container of their food for Dakota to have at doggie daycare this morning when he dropped her off.

There was still an hour to wait after Dakota left for daycare. I tried to entertain Cheyenne again but she was now moping around and very sad. She had no clue what was going to happen to her. All she knew is that she didn't get fed, her sister went to daycare without her, and she was now alone. I know dogs have poor short term memory and will forget such things but it broke my heart nonetheless. I felt so bad making her go through all of this for a surgery that was not a life or death situation. Sure, getting her spay helps prevent the onset of cancers and urinary tract infections in dogs but it still feels horrible to make her go without food.

Whoa! Now that was strange. As I sit here writing this blog entry, my phone rang and it was Dr. Work - the vet! He just wanted to let me know that everything went well and she is resting comfortably with the help of some wonderful pain medications and I can pick her up tomorrow afternoon (on schedule). Okay, so I feel better now that she is okay but I guess that I will still feel a little bad about not feeding her this morning. *laugh* I know - she is just a dog! But, she is my dog! *smile*