Michigan Trip, Day 5

18 August 2013

We were at Greenfield Village basically from opening to closing! It was glorious. Perfect weather, so Mr. K did not have to wear shoes, and no one was chilly or overheated. Woohoo.

Dad had twisted his ankle the night before, so for the day he rented a scooter. We told him he looked like Dr. Nefario from Despicable Me.

We had planned to take the train to the back of the village and work our way forward, but the wait for the next one was too long—we had a long list of things to do! This ended up happening repeatedly and we never actually took the train. Ah well.

We walked all the way back to the Daggett Farmhouse, one of my favorite stops. Kay did excellent momentum pulling to get there. We stopped off at the Logan County Courthouse, where Abraham Lincoln once practiced law. We'd seen the outside but never the inside, and the door was open so we went in to learn more about it. When we came outside, I noticed that Kaline's liquid bandaid had all worn off and his ear looked pretty good! I was still super careful with it and the bandaid has since been reapplied, because he shook his head too hard and I could tell it wasn't going to hold. Maybe it will once the hair grows back?

Once we went inside the farmhouse, we had a lot of things to work on! The fire inside was crackling merrily as usual—the Daggett Farmhouse presenters cook their meals there and much of their food comes from the garden in the back. It's so cool that it's still at least kind of a working farm. But the open flame scared the crap out of Kaline (not literally) who had no clue what the heck it was. He froze, hackles up, and gave a little wuff.

The presenters were super nice and supportive about me working Kaline through it. We went outside to calm down, first of all. Did some easy commands (sit, touch, stand). Once he was a bit calmer and more focused, we went back inside. He was still not happy about the flames but I took him as far away from them as I could to sneak past and get him into the kitchen area. There, he chilled out nicely. I let all the presenters say hi to him and pet him because he also seemed unsettled by their period dress.

We met a guy, also in period garb, outside splitting wood. Kaline warmed up to him nicely, after being a little unsure at first. Then we spent a long time at the candle-making demo. The two ladies there were very informative and very happy to help Kaline with his aversion to period dress. One even took off her straw bonnet so he could make a closer inspection. He really relaxed after that interaction. Yay.

One of the lovely, super helpful dog-loving candle makers.

Next we went to the beautiful Cotswold Cottage for tea and scones, something that is never an option when we go in chilly October. There were tables set up in the side yard with little umbrellas over them, and flowers all around. English gardens are awesome. Kaline chilled out next to my chair for the most part (till we got him up for a wee photo shoot—Mom can't resist the combo of gorgeous flowers and dogs). I got a pot of hot English Breakfast tea in a tea cozy, with a full honey bear on the table just for me. The scones with jam and clotted cream were to die for.

We came back to the Town Hall for a fun Gershwin medley performance, during which Kaline warmed my feet. The parents went to ride the carousel while Kaline and I waited in vain at the town hall for the baseball parade to begin. (Dammit.) After that, Dad went to watch the game, while Mom, Kaline and I went off on our own.

Town Hall.

Greenfield Village Omnibus.

 We ended up at Liberty Craft Works again, where I was actually able to watch and very much enjoy the pottery demonstrations. Kaline also met a tiny little girl who was so cute and polite I let her pet him and love him up. He'd been doing so well all day I thought he deserved a reward.

A little later, we met back up with Dad and decided to ride the Model T even though there was a really long line. Kaline did pretty well in line except when he accidentally did a tail clamp on one of the chains that marked the line's serpentine. Did some blocking, some lying down with all the humans blocking for him. We ended up in basically a Model T woody, known as a hack. Kaline was a little nervous at first because of how loudly the gears shifted and how much vibration there was, but soon he settled into a down at my feet.

On the Model T ... Kaline is hard to see but he's there!

After our ride we explored the Miller School, another building we'd never been in since it's rarely open to the public. The man at the door advised that there was a tiny steam engine inside, so I'd be ready to work Kaline through it if it bothered him, but he totally didn't care. Just flopped on the floor while Dad and I talked to one of the presenters about steam engines and the war for Toledo (Michigan “lost” but got the Upper Peninsula, full of copper and other awesome things. Ohio got ... Toledo.)

Kaline and I with my favorite poster. Bennett Park is where the Tigers played before they had Navin Field/Briggs Stadium/Tiger Stadium.

Itty bitty steam engine.

We checked out the World's Fair exhibit in the actual museum, but it wasn't that exciting, unfortunately. Even Mom agrees that the best special exhibit we've ever seen there was the baseball one put on by the Hall of Fame in 2006 (I think). None of the others have even come close, though we never did get to see the Titanic one. I bet that one was pretty cool.

Momentum pull FTW!!

Dinner was yummy, and when I was feeling particularly tense and anxious, Kaline got up and laid his head in my lap for a while. Both my parents commented on how excellently he'd done on the trip. Sure, he was a little annoying in his teenager way when off duty, but during his working time, he was pretty much everything you could possibly ask from a nearly 16-month-old pup. Very professional.

The Ear Saga of Woe

The Ear of Woe. Spot the injury—if you can!

Holy crap. Most exhausting, stressful week in quite some time.

After Kaline got the sutures in his ear, he had to be in a bandage, snood, and cone for three days. On day two, I noticed the snood's mesh starting to cut into the exposed underside of his ear, so back we went to have that off. The bandage and cone remained. Kaline, on sedatives, stayed mostly quiet and actually had a fairly good appetite. We got the poor little invalid some baby food to tempt his palate. Mom has been especially solicitous, even to the point of telling off her “girlfriend” Juno for barking at Kaline!

Sunday was day three, and we took Kaline back to the e-vet to have the bandage completely off. He was in the back an interminably long time. I heard the ominous sound of him being allowed to do a whole body shake. A long while after that, a vet (not the last one we had) came out to talk to us.

He had, indeed, busted his ear yet again. They'd glued it and were bandaging him again. I was extremely frustrated that they had allowed him to shake off as hard as he wanted right after the bandage came off. I was frustrated that they only wanted to leave the bandage on three days. (The reasoning for that—limiting the risk of other problems arising due to moisture in the ear—was explained to me by one of the excellent techs.) The vet just said we needed to be patient. Which was also frustrating, because I for one would've been happy to leave the bandage on for a week! (Before learning that that would be bad.)

Then came the kicker. The vet goes: “Well, he is a Doberman. You could always crop his ears.” Were I a cartoon character at that moment, my face would've turned bright red, smoke would've come out my ears, and my eyes would have zoomed about a foot out from my face. Kaline's cut is measured in millimeters. And somehow a solution to that would be cutting off most of his ears? Also, HELLO, you don't crop the ears of a fifteen-month-old dog. Twelve weeks old is considered late to do it. I was just furious and way overwhelmed with anxiety and worry. And I'd been stupid and left Juno home with Mom.

When Kaline finally came out, with a bandage that looked like a diaper on his head in addition to his cone, I immediately went to hug him because I was just so relieved to see him. Despite being sedated and probably in some pain or at least discomfort, Kaline immediately started deep pressure into my chest. I almost started sobbing right there. I couldn't believe he was trying to take care of me when he was the one all the bad things were happening to.

Diaper bandage and cone.

Everything just looked disastrous—we might have to cut off a piece of his ear (again, explained by the tech as to why that could be helpful/necessary—the techs are unfailingly excellent over there), the entire trip to Michigan could be off, Kaline was back in the cone and clearly not a happy camper.

Three more days of tense waiting commenced. The appetite stayed fairly good, amazingly, and somehow my family were all able to work our schedules so Kaline was almost never by himself. The sedatives were a really big help, because it stopped him wanting to shake so often and also meant that the 20-30 minutes of exercise he was allowed per day were enough. I shudder to think of an un-sedated Kaline forced to endure days with that little exercise!

Poor little invalid.

Yesterday, we headed to our regular vet to have the bandage off. I formulated a plan, we followed it exactly, and it worked!

When we went in, Noel carefully slid the cone off and cut the bandage off Kaline's head. He had a ring of adhesive residue around his neck and some irritation from the bandage on the front of his neck, but the ear looked pretty good. I kept a good hold on his collar, preventing him from shaking, and gently held his bad ear in a piece of gauze. Dr. Mihalek came in with the little plastic vials of glue and applied that while I held Kaline and his ear. Once it was dry, we let him go but I still didn't let him shake. Brilliant.

Yay, Real Kaline™ is back!

We got home, and I gathered my supplies bought earlier in the day: wound cream, wound powder to stop bleeding, and liquid bandaid. All we needed was liquid bandaid. I applied it liberally to his ear and since then, it has held up beautifully! I've been watching Kay carefully, and he's always either on leash or on an e-collar so we can nip any shake in the bud. Nonetheless he's managed about three full-body shakes (mostly in the car) since yesterday afternoon, and his ear is still intact! Liquid bandaid, you are my hero. The trip to Michigan is back on, and boy, is it ever wonderful to see my puppy's beautiful face framed by his marvelous, silky ears again. I feel like I worked really hard to get those ears! I don't want anything bad to happen to them. Kaline is clearly so much happier out of the cone (shocking, I'm sure). I'm still a little on edge and checking his ear obsessively anytime he gets a good shake in, but I feel loads better.

In case they're reading: Big, big thanks to all my friends who supported me through all the stress and offered excellent advice. Especially everyone who said, “Just GLUE IT already!” Should've listened to you much earlier. And extra super special gratitude to Maura, Kaline's breeder, leader of the Glue It Already group, who is always there with super helpful advice and encouragement.