I’ve talked about my dog Scotch before. But if you are unfamiliar, he is a rescue dog, picked up walking along the streets of Tennessee. In getting to know him, we assume that a family must have abandoned him because he is housebroken, great with kids, and great on a leash. We don’t know who could have abandoned such a cute little face and a great personality, but these things happen. We’re incredibly happy that he could become a part of our family.
But due to his time on his own, Scotch’s teeth are in really bad shape. He’s missing about half of his teeth, including those he’s already had to get pulled. Check out the photo below. If you look closely, you can see that the left side of his upper lip rises in an Elvis-like fashion. A cute little snarl, if you will.
The reason that happens is because he needed his upper-left incisor removed, so his lower-left incisor pushes his lip up. Today, he is getting his upper-right incisor removed because it was cracked, and it finally reached the point of no return. The bad news? Fewer teeth. The good news? He will now have that snarl on both sides of his mouth: perma-grin in other words.
My wife Laura and I don’t have any kids yet, but we imagine parenting to be akin to days like this. They are hard for us. We both had trouble sleeping last night, and it was hard to deny him food this morning (As you can see, Scotch has world class sad eyes, and given his rough past, we tend to spoil him rotten as it is). And I’m going to be a wreck all day until I see him again.
I know this is probably insulting to parents, equating my dog with their kids. But I imagine it’s somewhat similar to looking after a child. Only that drive and that pain is probably far more intense. At least as the child grows up, communication becomes two-way, and you can explain how getting a procedure done will make their life better, decrease their pain, etc.
Maybe this is a discussion I should have with my parents. Both my sister and I had a lot of medical issues growing up, and my parents were troopers. I’m sure it wasn’t easy on them. Thanks for letting me vent, readers. It helps me deal with things until I can see him again. And when I do, I’ll be sure to spoil my little Scotchy once again. I’m sure Santa will be very good to him this year.
