"It takes incredible smarts and determination to survive alone by yourself in the hurricane ravaged wild," Siku said long ago of Roman. "He will surprise you."
Roman thrives on routine and calm waters; doesn't cope so well psychologically faced with chaos. And we have been in stumbling lack of coordination.
Ignored by its nonchalantness, Roman managed to puzzle out how to untighten the over the forehead strap to his safety muzzle. Last time at the vet, the strap was threaded as one would put on a belt or wrap a bracelet. It has been fine for months because Roman just did not think about or test the method.
What SHOULD have been done was to bring the strap back over the buckle and rethread it backward so that any pull to the strap would actually tighten the grip.
Roman has been aloof and rejected most touching (even more than normal) since Siku's death. I noticed several times that he was rubbing his face against the carpet and pulling at his mask. I thought he was scratching an itch. But there was method to his movement.
Yesterday, I saw the fastening was very loose leaving a short tab that could pull out of the buckle and free his face. Steve took a long chew and Our Boy into the kitchen with the plan to distract him with kindness while giving the strap a tug back in place. Roman was too sly to be caught off-guard; he snapped at Steve then refused to be near him.
"OK Buddy," I told him. "We will take you to Dr. Julia's tomorrow. You seem more tolerant of them. But tonight you must stay in your crate. Should you free face I would fear for the safety of the others. I understand that you are working through our changes but momma has a responsibility to protect all of you."
Steve loaded Roman into the crate and then into the van this afternoon (he is our NO to leashes or car rides boy). They laughed at Steve at Dr. Julia's. "He was perfectly well behaved. Rosie rethreaded the strap while Margaret rubbed his neck." Steve just shook his head.
1 comment:
Roman sure is a clever fella!
I had to giggle!
(Our Dalton has been with us for over four years now, and I am the only one he allows touching, other than a few chin scritches when he comes up to his pawppy after he gets fed...by Pawppy...he has bitten both of our sons and hubby he got twice...I did not think after this length of time we would still have all these issues in our little rescue pup. He is way more fearful/anxious/stressed with men...thankfully he gets on famously with his doggy brofurs, past and present.)
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