Michigan Trip, Day 1

14 August 2013

What a long day our first one was. I got up quite early to make sure Kaline had a long walk before heading to the airport. I've never been quite so glad to have him do No. 1 and No. 2 with great efficiency! I basically let him pee on anything he wanted—I just wanted him empty.

By design, we did not get to the airport terribly early. It worked out perfectly. We had just enough time to check our bags, for me to whisk Kaline for one last pee at the far-away animal relief area, get through security, and board early.

On the way to the relief area, I had Kaline practice his momentum pull. He is still sometimes pulling too hard, but he did great in the few little crowds he had to navigate.

Security went okay, except for the shoe retrieve got botched. I will know for the future not to get caught up talking to the person behind me—while I was doing that, Kaline lost focus a bit and when I asked him to get the shoes, he looked at me like, “Ehhhh, you get 'em.” Dad got them. He did great getting both my jacket and hoodie off though. He held a nice down stay before his recall through the metal detector. A burly bearded guy did the pat down, and before starting he knelt in front of Kaline to get kisses and hugs. Kaline was thrilled.

In the short wait before we boarded the plane, Kaline, as I expected, had a nothing-vomit. Luckily, this was literally nothing (sometimes there is a tiny amount of yellow bile). He gave me so much warning with the heaving that I had time to search through my backpack, find the collapsible bowl, and position it in front of his mouth. Everyone was staring, it was a little embarrassing, but not too big a deal.

Kaline in the airport, post-nothing-vomit.

Kaline settled into his spot on the plane between my feet pretty well, but then got very scared by the takeoff. I was feeding his treats the whole time but it wasn't enough (then again, he never got so scared he wouldn't eat them!). For a while after we got in the air, he was trembling on and off, popping up, yawning, licking his lips, panting. Finally he settled down again and took a series of cat naps, mostly with his head on my knee. For his first flight, not too bad. He did pretty well on landing, just opened his eyes very wide.

On the plane, pre-takeoff.

Settled for a catnap.

My knee made an excellent chin rest.

In the Detroit airport, he was fantastic, just a bit overzealous with his momentum pull. We got our bags, then got the Hertz bus. Kay was very good on there. Getting the car took forever—I gave Kaline a long potty break, reapplied liquid bandaid to his ear, etc.—and Dad ended up getting a hulking Escalade (we exchanged it the next day because it was so monstrous).

Kaline on the Hertz bus.

We drove to TownePlace Suites, a hotel by the mall, which is not only pet friendly (so no hassle at the front desk about paperwork, ID, certification, or anything else) but also gave us an accessible room which had a separate bedroom, yay! We got dinner at nearby Red Robin and Kaline slept under the table.

In a kind way at dinner, the parents asked if I felt I would ever not need to use a SD, if I could “conquer” the psych stuff. I explained that since a SD works for me, that would be a reason to keep going, not stop. If I were on medication that treated my conditions, I would continue to take it, because it's doing what it's supposed to. I wouldn't see the fact that meds were working as a reason to discontinue them. Since medications don't work for me, I treat myself using a service dog. But it's the same basic idea. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I dressed Kaline in his Tiger pajamas when we got back to the hotel and he looked unspeakably adorable. He also tried to take over both the regular bed and the fold-out bed. Attaboy.

Kaline's bed.

Tigers jammies!

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.