Mollie Dog

This is Mollie Valentine.

(I know that picture is really blurry, but she's scared of my camera. So when I get it out, she won't be still)

She is 6yrs old and we have had her since she was about 10 weeks old.

She has turned out to be like a teacup breed of Maltese, although she wasn't advertised as that. We knew she was a Maltese and expected her to weigh between 6-10lbs like her parents.

She weighs 2.5lbs. She has never weighed more than 3lbs. She's soooo tiny and bony. We've had her on high-calorie dog food and it doesn't matter. She just doesn't gain weight. (it would be nice to have a bit of that problem)

Yesterday was not a good day for Mollie Dog.

I took her to get her teeth cleaned. Her breath was really stinky, so we decided it was time for a good cleaning.

When I took her in, one of the assistants told me about the procedure. Because of her size, they wanted to do bloodwork to make sure her tiny body could handle the anesthesia. Then, they also wanted to put a catheter in to keep her hydrated (again because of her size). I asked for an estimate for the procedure and was quoted around $300. (this included pain meds for afterwards as well as her heartworm meds for 6months). However, if she needed any extractions, they said the price would increase.

They told me they would start the procedure around mid-morning and that I should be able to pick her up late afternoon.

I received a call around 1:30 or 2:00. Here is what I recall of the conversation.

Me: "Hello"

Vet: "Mrs. Jackson, this is Dee, the Vet. Mollie is waking up from anesthesia and she's doing fine. But, I'm sorry to say that she has no teeth left."

Me: "Excuse me?"

Vet: "Yes ma'am. I'm sorry, but her teeth were just awful. They were infected and we really didn't even have to work to get them out."

Me: "So she has NO teeth left?"

Vet: "Right, but I assure you she's going to feel much better."

Me: "I didn't know she was feeling bad in the first place."

Vet: "Her teeth were really bad and just practically fell out."

Me: "How will she eat?"

Vet: "She'll do fine on soft food."

The conversation went on for a bit longer but the details after that are unimportant. We hung up and I felt completely sick to my stomach. I would go back and forth between thinking I was going to throw up and then feeling like I was going to cry.

She is just a dog. I get that. But, no teeth? That's just not right.

In the conversation, I was told to wait until around 5:00 to come and pick her up so they could continue to watch her. Philip was supposed to get home around 5:00 so I decided to wait until he got home to go get Mollie, so I wouldn't have the distraction of all my busy blessings being with me.

As it got closer and closer to 5:00, the knot I was feeling kept getting tighter and tigher. It traveled. Going from my stomach, up to my throat, back down to my stomach, etc...

Philip came home and it was time. Emma Kate asked if she could go with me. Although I would've rather gone by myself, I said yes. I later had a thought that her going with me was probably God's way of keeping me calm and Christian-like when I spoke with the 2 Dr's.

The vet is only about 5 minutes from our house, but with each passing minute during the drive, I was getting madder. And sicker. We went in and they called us back into an examining room. Two Dr's that helped with her procedure came in to talk to us. I won't go through the details of that conversation, but 2 things happened:

1. I calmy let them know how unhappy I was that no one called until AFTER it had been done.
2. I actually felt much better about Mollie's prognosis after hearing their explanation.

Then it was time to see our Mollie Dog. Surprisingly she looked almost normal. They had said the main difference we would probably notice would be that her tongue might hang out or be wobbly. Because she doesn't have a place to "rest" it and therefore doesn't really know what to do with it.

We brought her home and she acted much better than I anticipated the first 2 hours we were home. As evening rolled around though, she just wasn't herself. She wouldn't go into her "house." (which is very strange b/c that's where she likes to sleep and its her safe haven away from all the noise and chaos of our house). She also would barely sit or lay down. She just stood.

When it was time for Philip and I to go to bed, she still wouldn't go in her house nor lay down outside of her house. I put her in bed with us and was able to curl her up next to me. She stayed in our bed the entire night (which is a big no-no for Philip. When we first got her, I wanted her to sleep in our bed and he immediately nixed that. In hindsight, I'm glad she has her own bed and we have ours. Thankfully though, I think he knew how critical last night was and he didn't make me put her down). She slept pretty good. I heard a couple of moans from her, and I had to make her lay back down a few times.

She still isn't herself today. Her front 2 legs are very stiff and she still won't sit or lay down. The vet called this morning to check on her and said that if she's still acting that way tomorrow to give them a call.

I felt so sorry for her and it hurt me to see the way she's still acting today. So I've resorted to this...

Carrying her around in a pouch.

Go ahead and laugh if you want. But don't let me know about it. She's just not herself and if this makes her feel better, I'm going to do it.

This carrier is from Build-a-Bear. Emma Kate got it one time for one of her bears. (sidenote: Praise the Lord we no longer have to go to Build-a-Bear and spend WAY TOO MUCH MONEY on stuffing and dressing bears.)

It's just the right size for our Mollie Dog.

Lovely picture, I know. Its a snow day. It's 2:03pm and I'm still in my pj's. Don't be a hater.
Emma Kate has enjoyed carrying Mollie around today, too.

Hopefully she'll perk back up in the next day or two.

Story to be continued....