Guiding Eyes  Day 17  Tuesday  11th

Today I put my fingers in places I never would have chosen before! I learned how to clean dog ears, "pill" a dog when chewing isn't allowed, and brushed dog teeth. All in 15 minutes.

Imagine someone holding your mouth with one hand along the edge of yyour upper molars, and with the other hand, prying open your teeth, jamming a pill pinched between your thumb and middle finger all the way back in your throat, just before the esophogus turns downward, then clamps your teeth together (gently but firmly, and strokes your throat to encourage you to swallow. Don't know about you, but I'd be gagging the second that pill  and those fingers hit my tongue. Pippi had to put up with me jamming pills (just Brewer's Yeast) down her gullet three times. I'm praying her future holds only chewable meds or ones that mix with food.

Then there was the teeth brushing. No brushes yet, just a gauze pad aroung our pointer finger. I had to slip it under Pip's jowl on one side, aim the the back molars on the outside (front side) of her teeth, a quick whish-whish-whish and out of there so she doesn't accidentally chomp on my finger. I gotta say, any finger poked into my mouth without asking permission, will most certainly be biten. Hard. And on purpose. I'm just telling you the truth. If your digits are still intact, now try the other side of the mouth. Thank goodness I don't have to wrangle her to brush the backs of the teeth. Did I mention that toothpaste comes in liver and chicken flavors? My girl is using the minty fresh kind. I'm putting up with those lick-the-mouth kisses but the  liver/chicken breath would be too much.

Okay, now for the ears. While we were told as kids that nothing smaller than your elbow should be placed in our delicate ear canals, it's totally different with dogs. Not only do they have long throats that cause you to practically stick your finger up to your wrist to jam in pills, there ears also  have longer canals and you need to stick your finger, again with a gauze pad, all the way in til you reach the base of your finger. So now you're holding up one of those sweet floppy ears, and "dusting" all the little nooks and crannies in the canal. Really? Dusting the cartilage? Blech! That was disgusting. And I have the privilege of doing that once a week. Slight blackish stuff on the gauze is normal; a bunch of it means call the vet.

Teeth brushing? Every day so you won't need to take doggie in to a doggie dentist, be sedated, and have teeth cleaned with the same power tool and  high pitched sound- that would irritate a conscious dog-  many of our dentists use.

There's a few more openings on my fog, but I draw the line removing boogers from a dog's nose and I won't be trying any rectal thermonmeters either. A girl's got to have standards, you know.