July 23, 2011

White Dog came to me early this morning and wanted to discuss Nuka. "Please," I begged,"don't start the morning by complaining about your sister, yes she can be pushy..." WD interrupted me, "Momma, Another White Dog feels left out because Puff got to go to the groomer. She feels like an ugly duckling!"

Nuka Angel came to us with a skin condition. She has more than two dozen papillomas all over her body; these are not harmful or dangerous and the only way to remove them is to burn them as a surgical procedure. Pre-arrival at the White Dog Army she had been shaved to remove her matting and in the process someone had ripped open all those growths leaving our new girl bloodied and in pain. We vowed never to allow that again. At her age and with the number of growths surgery is not practical so at Dr. Julia's advice, we have left them and just monitor to make sure there are not changes to shape or color or size. It DOES however make it virtually impossible to clip her or take her to a groomer.

AWD has learned with Steve's gentle persistence to sit for a massaging bath and brushing with a very soft bristled baby brush. She allows us to finger comb out her mats. We can now clean her ears without her getting upset and as a result she has had only one ear infection (for which she was notorious) since arriving here.

One thing we have not been brave enough to try is clipping her nails...until now. AWD had gotten to the point the the nails were overlong and we worried would start to impede her walking but we feared traumatizing our skittish girl. Another blogger recently did a review of Pedi-Paws a dremel-type clipper with lots of safety features. We got one and tried it on Puff a while ago; SAWD is our most cooperative one and she did well.

After White Dog came to me, Steve and I decided that Nuka would get star attention based on a nice pedicure. I gathered her in my arms. The rest of the White Dog Army arrayed themselves to encourage and watch. Nuka loved being the center of attention!
Steve did the actual grinding (deaf AWD didn't hear the noise) slowly and softly handling AWD's paw and massaging her foot to relax her. I held her and rubbed her belly. There was no complaining and all went smoothly. After, we rubbed in some musher's balm for soothing relief and wrapped her feet in a cool towel for a few minute; the WDA watched in fascination.

The payoff was when I set her back on the floor. she took a few steps and stopped to examine the work. The others swarmed around to sniff and compliment and make her feel good. She was like a girl with new shoes, walking all around and prancing up to YoYoMa, then Puff, and finally Quinn to show off her pedicure. It was only AFTER the round of approval that she returned for the treat I had promised at the beginning of the event.