More practice

I really think my dog is afraid I need practice being a good parent. Back in November, she had a little incident that tested the S.O. and me. Then, last week, she decided that a trip to the emergency vet would give us a little taste of what it's like to have a sick kid.

The S.O. and I had headed up to ski country -- skiing for him, reading and relaxing for me -- for a couple days. We left the pooch in the very capable hands of our neighbors. They have watched her many times for us in the past, including during our recent babymoon. So, I know it wasn't their fault the dog decided to hurt herself.

As I walked up to the neighbors' door, I could see through the window the teenage daughter rushing around. I rang the bell, and she opened the door to tell me, "Ripley got a cut. We're cleaning it now."

I took one look at the cut and got a bit queasy. It wasn't big but it was deep and really gross. I told the S.O. to call our vet to see if there was any chance he could squeeze us in at 4:30 the day before the day before a holiday. We haven't the best vet, but even he couldn't pull that one off. So, off to the emergency vet for us. Luckily, Ripley wasn't bleeding much and really didn't seem to be in too much pain, but the wound was open and yucky, and we had no idea what had caused it -- a rusty nail, an animal, a stick.

We got in right away but they had to keep her for several hours, so we left her for the evening and headed home to worry wait. I guess that's a major difference: If it had been our kid, we wouldn't have left him at the ER and gone home to our comfy living room.

We picked her up around 10 p.m., took her home, gave her medicine and put her to bed. She has about five stitches on her right foreleg and will probably have a lovely new scar, but otherwise she was really fine -- a little groggy from the anesthesia and a little put out about having to be away from us for another evening.

We don't know how she got the laceration but I kind of suspect it was a test of our parenting skills. We passed.