LEAVE IT! -Henry Clay is now 101/2 months.

Three months have passed since I had a minute to write on our Therapy Dog blog.  Needless to say many interesting and sometimes frustrating moments have passed.  Truth be told most the moments with Henry Clay have been good ones. 

So since last I wrote he has hit his full height.  When he stands on his hind legs there are no surfaces in my house or office which he cannot reach.  He gently plucks whatever he wants from the countertops and runs off with it to his 'mat'.  In his mind he seems to think that is "base" and we can't get him there.  We still snatch the knives, cheese, socks, medicine bottles, soda bottles (full) from him and say "Leave It!"  All the while he looks at us like "what?? I am on base, you can't take that!"  His big brown eyes looking at you almost make you feel a little sorry for him, until you realize your pizza is missing and he ate it on base.

For whatever reason tissues are extremely tempting for him.  I am not a crier, but I do keep them in the office just in case I have someone who needs a hot beverage and a tissue.  The last three months of school have been the demise of (I hate to admit) probably 8 tissue boxes.  When I remember I will put it up before I head out, but sometimes in a school the principal is called in a hurry and the tissue eating dog is the last thing on my mind.  Each time I have forgotten I come back to what appears to be Hollywood snow all over my office- or at least a dusting.  The tissues are shred.  Again he looks up at us almost to say, "you knew I would do this, didn't you leave them for me?"  So as I think through this process what does that tell me? I have to manage the situation sometimes we know a kid or a dog just can't resist and we need to manage the situation.  I am still working on it.

However, tissue boxes are really the least of the things Henry Clay has taken as his own.  When my son was little I truly thought "this kid isn't going to make it to adulthood."  Between his impulsiveness, literally  jump first, look for somewhere to land later,  attitude and his innate ability to make me want to strangle him.  (good news my son made it and is doing fine)  Henry Clay seems to have taken the same track as our own little  wildman.  For example, the first day he realized he could get on the counter was the day he came bounding into the living room with a carving knife in his mouth. All three of us jump up and move to grab the implement and derail the impending moment of doom.  Yelling and screaming and HC just looking at us like "I had the sharp end toward you all what's the big deal?'   Knife retrieved all is well.

My bag for work seems especially delightful for him.  I usually throw my lunch (almonds and a bottle of water) in  the bag and forget that it is there.  I put the bag up on the conference table thinking he will leave it alone.  Why I think this I have no idea because when I step out I generally return to a shredded plastic bag and almonds scattered.  Almonds aren't the best for a dog- he seems to have adjusted quite nicely - however again, I have to manage the situation- simple- zip my bag shut.  I'll let you know what the outcome of that is at a later date. 

He does frighten me with a few more dangerous things (more dangerous than a knife?) he has gotten into - for the last 27 years of my life I have set my meds on the counter, got my coffee,  prepared my things to go to work in that order. The bottle stays on the counter toward the back.  27 years of routine is challenging to modify. The routine will have to change.  Dr. Albert has become a very dear friend not just because of the time, talent and dedication she has shared with us in training HC but it would seem she has already saved his life a time or two already.  Or at least saved my life, at this point if HC gets wounded, sick or killed I feel I may need to move or find a new job-which is good, that means he is well loved.   He has become a part of the fabric of the school.   So back to the drug taking dog. That's it, he gets the bottle runs back to base and in 5 seconds flat has devoured the lid and has ingested some meds.  Luckily he has only taken thyroid medication and not much of it. Dr. Albert gets the HELP text and provides instructions for care, the same as she did when he ate the almonds, avocado, and the myriad of other things a dog shouldn't eat.   

It would seem I am still learning to train what I can, and manage the rest, while keeping him safe, engaged, and constantly learning new things. - The things I learn from Henry Clay.  There are days when I think was this worth it?  Like the day Henry Clay got into Tom's birthday cake.  I didn't think too much about it I didn't think he ate that much of it.  However MollyKate had made a special, extra chocolatey double dark chocolate cake for her daddy for his birthday.  Yes, it was on the counter- all the way to the back.  A normal size dog shouldn't be able to reach that far- HC is not normal, he is a long legged beast.  He snuck up there and had 1/8 of the cake gone in a flash.  We grabbed the cake and that was that- Both Tom and MK were pretty upset about the whole thing.  HC again just looked at us like ..mmmm that was tasty.  As we all know dogs shouldn't eat chocolate, I had looked it up on the Internet since at this point I was sure Dr. Albert was going to turn me into the dog version of CPS if we called with another issue.  It said they had to eat a certain amount before it bothered them.  So I took the wait and see approach.  What we had waited to see was explosive diarrhea. I thought surely it won't last long it will be out of his system in 24 hours - surely.  I went ahead and brought him to school since it was getting close to the end of the year, I wanted the kids to get to see him before they were gone for summer.   Henry Clay and I were making our way into the gym, with 435 kids seated in the bleachers, and yep, sure enough he had the big D all over the place in the gym and then in the lobby as I was getting him out.  You know what was kind of cool about the whole thing.  The kids. These are 11-14 year old adolescents who can't say "do" without making a poop reference.  There was a slight "ohhhhhhhhhhh" as HC was getting sick, but more of a empathetic oooooo than a Ha Ha that is funny ooooooo.   Jennifer took HC outside, I walked to the crowd and told them he had gotten into chocolate and was sick, please go the other way to class.  They did, every one of them, no questions asked just polite obedience.  There was no silliness or any adolescent jokes, just empathy for their sick puppy-even though it was his fault.   I cleaned up the floor, and yes in my professional attire hundreds of kids saw the principal on hands and knees cleaning up a poop mess.  I have no idea what they thought, but I do know I witnessed empathy.   Thank you Henry Clay Clermont Stephens.  Unfortunately I did have to call Dr. Albert who gave us some medicine and proper dog food for a sick puppy who recovered within 24 hours of treatment.  Thank you Dr. Albert for not calling the the ASPCA.  Yet.

So school without kids is kind of boring, not only for me but for Henry Clay too.  His dog nephew Shackleford (@shacklefordthepup) has come around to visit more often and he has loved that but that still leaves a lot of time to be bored.  He has still been coming to school with me so that he stays used to the car and the drive.  The biggest "LEAVE IT" moment came last Friday when we almost said good-bye to Henry Clay.  No hyperbole there at all.  While working in my office I was at my desk and he was behind the table laying on the floor as he has done many times.   It was only me and him at school since it was a Friday and everyone else has Friday off.  Out of the blue I hear the highest pitched, most blood curdling yelp I have ever heard from him, I whip around to see he has an electrical cord in his mouth he appears to be stuck to it. I rip it out of the wall. He releases it, continues to yelp a yelp straight out of doggy hell I see he has peed, he starts to run toward the door like he is trying to escape  hell itself. Yelping and pooping the whole way, he won't let me touch him and is doing everything he can do to get out of the building.  He smells like death and I am calling Dr. Albert, when she answers I say "Hello I think HC has electrocuted himself" She says, "Is that him I hear? If so, then he hasn't electrocuted himself, that happens fast" I told her the story and she says bring him out.  I knew he wasn't dead, but I was concerned about brain or heart damage.  It seemed pretty serious.  On my way there I kept thinking, 1) this dog is like a kid 2) if anything happens to this dog, yes I will be sad, but I will have some explaining to do.  3) Dr. Albert is going to think there is no way I can manage a school when I can't even keep this dog out of trouble.  When we got there she is in her work clothes and is at the cattle guard waiting for us.  She gets in and we drive up to the house where we are greeted by a friendly burro. She gets her space ready and invites HC and I in for the examination.  He seems much better and she looks him over, she consults with a colleague and worst case scenario is he could be facing a pulmonary embolism which there is nothing you can do about it, best case scenario he is just fine and will live to tell the tale.    Good news for HC, it is the later, bad news for me, Dr. Albert says "he will do it again, he won't learn from this" I simply cannot imagine him not learning from this, but I totally believe it.   So we will have to puppy proof the school even more.  Trash cans are already up on desks and counters as you walk through the school next PVC  pipes around electrical cords. --- And still the ASPCA (CPS for animals)  has not come to take the dog from me yet. 

 

This isn't my first rodeo with a pup.  We have had puppies before- we must admit Henry Clay has been an entirely new ball game! He and Gipper seem to get along better now.  Gippy has gotten a little pep in his step since HC came along.  He will be 15 years old on August the 8th of this year. That is a long life for a dog, he too has been a really good dog- He was our guard dog for a long time and all the neighborhood kids knew, 'don't mess with Ms. Stephens house that little black dog will get ya'. He has settled down now and is a barker- sadly he has taught HC to be a barker too and I don't really know how to change that.  We love Gippy he NEVER gave us the same issues we have had with HC. Not once did I have to call the vet and say "he _________________ is he gonna live?" With Henry Clay that phone call has happened 5 times in the last three months.  In the end, even with the life flashing before our eyes moments, it has been a blessing over and over. I know one thing, I better figure out how to manage the environment and keep the Therapy Pup safe because there is no way I could explain it to the kids- (or the teachers) especially since he pulled his last "life flash" just a couple of days after he got his badge!