Linus

May 15, 2023

LINUS

Today we went to the Vet. That is the dog doctor, in case you didn’t know. I like the Vet because mom always says, “Do you want to go see your friends?” And I do! I do like to go see my friends! So I go get in the car but I cannot jump up into the front seat like I could when I was young, so mom says, “hold on, let me get your stairs!” At first when she did this- got stairs- I looked at her with my head to the side, and I was confused. I also was very skeptical. This word I know means, I don’t know about this. I figured that out on my own because every time I tilt my head and look at my humans like this, and I am not sure about something, they say I am skeptical, so I think it is the same thing. So when Mom got the stairs the first time, I was skeptical.

First I tried one paw and then pulled it back. The stairs felt a little bit wobbles. She said, “It’s OK Bubs, you can do it!” So I believed her, so I tried again. And it was a little scary but I did it and it was much easier to get in the car that way, so we did it like that every time after that. I wish I could jump so high into the car like I used to but it is hard now. I loved jumping. I could jump the highest of all the things. I could jump to the sky to catch a frisbee. But now I cannot do the same things. So it is OK that she got me stairs. Also, because I do not like when she helps me with her hands and arms. Sometimes when she tries to help me with her hands and arms I bark and I show her my teeth and sometimes I snap them because I want her to know I can still do it myself, but even though I know I cannot. So, I bark at her, but also, I bark in frustration. She doesn’t know that part.

Now I know what the stairs are and how they work, so today when we went to the Vet I just walked up the stairs and made the last little hop onto the front seat. I like sitting in the front with her because she always rubs my head and scratches my chest and I feel so proud, and I can look out the window and see all the things and sometimes there is another dog in another car or walking and I can BARK so loud at them. Sometimes I put my head out the window. Sometimes we get a Puppacchino but I know I told you about those already. I don’t always know where we are going when we get in the car, but I know almost always when Mom or Big Guy says “wanna go for a drive?” That I am going to like it. I really like when I get to go see my friends.

I know we are close to the Vet because of the smells in the air. I can be half asleep and then the road sound makes a new noise and I can smell a certain scent in the air and I jump up and start getting so excited that everyone knows because I make excited whimpering noises I can’t control and my tail starts going fast. When we pull into the parking lot I can hardly wait to get out of the car! Mom says, LINUS WAIT and I have to sit still until she puts my leash on and then I can get out and then after that then I can sniff all the smells on the sidewalk when we walk in. I like to pee on the smells too. I don’t know why but I just do, even if I have no pee left. I still try! And then when we go inside to see my friends and they all say LINUS! and I wag my tail and sometimes pee on the floor a little because I am so happy and then this is what I do: I go over to the big, cold, silver thing to stand on, and then I get a treat. Sometimes I get many treats. And the humans yell out numbers. This time they say, four-three-point-seven. I will tell you a secret. I do not know what these numbers mean.

I like coming to the Vet. A lot of times Mom drops me off and I get to stay with my friends for lots of days. I know the “ropes.” My friends come to get me from my mom, or sometimes Big Guy, and they take the leash from them and then I lead the way to the back. I am very smart and I know where I am going and so I show my friends at the Vet where to go. I like this job. I get so excited to do this that sometimes I don’t even look back at mom but I think its OK because she says “OK Linus, be a good boy” so she must know that I don’t need to tell her I will. Plus, anyway she always tells me goodbye so many times and that she loves me and will miss me so much that sometimes I get annoyed. Annoyed means “stop doing this too much.”

My favorite friend that I see is Jason. He likes to have sunbeam time just like me. He takes me outside and he brings a Book and he sits in the sun and I sit in the sun next to him. I like these days best. But sometimes I get tricked though. Sometimes I think I am going to see my friends and get to stay on a vacation but then other times I just go see my friends and then they take me to the back but then trick me and put something over my nose and mouth that looks like a cage and then they hold me down and poke me with things. I will tell you I do not like this. They say I am very strong and they hold me down with two people and I squirm and I yelp and I don’t know why they do this to me. Sometimes even they use a contraption on my toes to make the nails less noisy on the ground and I don’t like this either. I try to tell them that I can chew on them to make them shorter, and this is why I wiggle so much and cry, but they don’t listen.

The good news it that it is all very quick and next thing you know they take the mask off and give me MORE treats and then I shake my body like a shiver and I am happy again. And then they take me back to my mom, and I think this is GREAT! But this is what they did this day- they took me to the back and did all the pokes and with my nails. Then we went into one of the rooms with the white walls and I got to smell all the smells in there too, which I don’t know if you know this but there are a lot of them. Good smells, girl dog smells, boy dog smells, pee smells, human smells. Some sick smells and some sad smells and some happy smells. Some smells like snacks and some smells like I don’t know what. I am a hound dog, I don’t know if you know this, but so this means I can smell everything from here until the moon. Mom sits with me while we wait to hear the “knock, knock” sound, and that is when the Doctor comes in.

I like my Doctor so much. She is very patient with me and I know that she makes me feel safe. She pets my head and doesn’t make me too scared. And she knows when I am scared a little bit and she gives me some space. She looks sometimes into my ears and my eyes and when I have the face cage on she pushes on my belly parts and then puts a metal thing to my chest to do something. She says, “sounds good” a lot so maybe she is listening to the music inside my body. Today she said, sounds good. She also called me a good boy which makes me happy. And then she also talked to my mom a lot. She said I am “very healthy for being fourteen years old.” CAN YOU BELIEVE IT THAT I AM FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. I am not a math expert because I am a dog but I think that is a very large number and I am a very old dog. I had suspicions that I was old because of how my bones feel and because I cannot do the jumps, but I had no idea. Doctor also said “I think you will still have him around for awhile still.” This is what she said to my Mom. Mom cried and scratched my head and I don’t know why because if she listened to the Doctor then she would know that I am old and healthy and around for longer so maybe fourteen more years, then she wouldn’t need to cry. I could smell when one tear hit the ground, and so I stood closer to her. This is one of my jobs.