Poor Puppy

About two weeks ago, my mom noticed a sore on Cosmos's paw. We think it came from possibly a piece of bark or a rock from our backyard. We casually monitored him so that he would not make it worse by licking the wound and took him to his new vet two days later. They shaved around the sore, took care of the infection, groomed his paws, gave us medication for him to take, and he returned home just fine. Although it was just a minor problem for him, it made me upset to think he was in the slightest amount of pain. Here is a veterinarian who's blog posts were almost . . . upsetting to read.

This had me thinking about the time he got a tumor near his eye. About five or six year ago, we noticed that on the outside corner of his left eye, there was a small bump on his skin. We didn't think much of it until it just kept getting bigger and bigger and ended up taking him to the vet's. I was over at the neighbor's house having a playdate when I came home to a poor puppy who had been cone-shammed. Now he has a gnarly stitch line giving him the appearance that he's rocking a cat-eye look.

When I first saw Cosmo after he had the tumor removed and was all stitched up, my eyes started watering. Part of it was that I was about eight or nine at the time and didn't really understand how minor the tumor was. But I think the main reason was because I didn't want to see such a happy dog with sad puppy eyes. Up until that point, I hadn't really seen Cosmo as anything but pure bliss. But the reality that he could, in fact, get sick or injured ruined the innocence of him for me. Literally two minutes ago as I was typing, my new house just made a odd noise in the quiet of the night, and Cosmo was very startled after being dead asleep. Catching him on senior moments like this make me realize that he is old and fragile now. I wish he could be that energetic puppy he once was when I was about the same height as him.

A happy Cosmo and me in 2009 hiking!

Well, Cosmo's telling me it's bedtime. Sweet dreams.

A sleepy Cosmo ready for bed.

Sleeping With Dogs

Let me start this post by giving you some background information of Cosmo. He's a twelve-year-old Labrador Retriever who has been with me since I was about two and a half; I can't remember life without him. He's a water dog who's afraid of water, as well as many other odd things that I'll go in to more depth in later posts. Because he's now so old, he can't hike and do other activities that he loves like he could even two years ago. It's sad that he can no longer to do as much physically, but we still get just as much love, fun, and giggles (especially with his senior moments). Even when no one else can, my dog always knows how to make me laugh. Cosmo has been in my life for as long as I can remember, so he has become one of my best friends and we've shared so many memories together.

Cosmo and his tongue cooling off in the bushes about a year ago after hiking five miles with another five more on the way.

My family and I recently mad a major lifestyle by moving for the first time in eight years. We only moved forty-five minutes from our old house, but it's still a huge difference in landscape and culture among other things. Everyone has been adjusting differently. My brother, being a senior in high school, is driving forty minutes to school and forty minutes back at least every other day. Both of my parents kept their same jobs but have been driving about a thirty-fifty minute every other day as well. For me, I'm at a new school with new kids, new teachers, and a fresh start. I was excited for a change in scenery and to meet people, so this has been a good experience for me. As for Cosmo, he's been adjusting a lot better than I thought he would. Because all he does is lay around and eat all day, he doesn't get much action outside. So his biggest problem for about the first two or three weeks moving here was the house and its stairs. Our old has did not have a lot of stairs that anyone really went up and down. But now there are plenty of stairs, and it's been difficult for him. He's slowly getting used to them though!

Cosmo getting more comfortable going down the stairs.

This last weekend, I decided to have all of my friends from my old school up at my new house. We decided we would put two girls on a couch and three girls on two mattresses. Because we were already snug, I decided to make Cosmo his own bed out of blankets on the floor. But he's been sleeping on one of the extra mattresses in my room for about a month now, so he came to me and gave me the puppy-eye treatment wanting to take part in the sleepover. How could I deprive him of a comfy mattress? I put him in between my friend and me, and I ended up sleeping on the ground. I'm a sucker when it comes to Cosmo being happy. My brother and I sometimes fight over having Cosmo in our rooms for the night- there's something just so comforting about it. You learn to love the way he breaths, snores, dreams, and the tired smiles you wake him up from late night belly rubs. It's such a happy, peaceful time that I look forward to every night; it's nice to know he's by my side.

This is where Cosmo slept when my friends and I were sleeping in here. He's looking pretty comfy!

Here's a cool story about Ceasar and his dog's sleeping experiences, as well as other helpful dog information.