MY OWN SNOOPY DIVA

Poor, poor Snoopy. She just gets herself in a twit over some things and then pays heavily and it crushes my heart watching her. She refuses to let anyone trim her nails. This normally docile doggy turns into a snarling, foaming at the mouth, stranger when someone tries to trim her nails---us, the groomers, her kennel lady, even the vet. So a few years ago, the vet suggested we bring her in, have her tranquilized, and they would trim her nails.

So we tried that a couple of times and believe it or not, she still fought the trimmers while under heavy sedation. But the vet's office was successful. After that the groomer was able to trim her nails a time or two.

Then last year when I took her in for her yearly shots and heartworm check, she fought tooth and nail against having blood taken out of her front leg----similar to how she fights nail trimming. The vet suggested that on her annual visit this year, why don't I bring her in, they'll tranq her, trim her nails, give her the required shots, and draw the blood for the heartworm test all at once.

So that was yesterday. She wasn't allowed food after midnight the night before and so at 5:30 a.m., I swear she is stomping her long-nailed feet on the kitchen floor trying to get my attention while she was standing in front of her food bowl. Repeatedly. Stomp, stomp, stomp.....long glare......stomp, stomp, stomp....long glare. Finally I tried to explain that she wasn't getting breakfast until later but hey, let's go on a car ride instead (oh the trickery).

Well, we were in the city and she sees the vet in the country, so we had a long drive first, stopping at Starbucks halfway to settle down my addictive cravings. Poor dog, was so hungry by this time, she was nosing around the hot coffee trying to get some sort of relief from her hunger.

Then arriving at the vet, she realized what was up and started to get her panic on but I was out the door. When I picked her up 3 hours later, the receptionist met me with, "My Lord, what a Drama Queen that dog is." They were successful in everything but they said she fought and cried vocally and with tears. She is a yellow lab mix and when she gets upset, she actually cries tears and so she has those brown tear tracks down her face (like you see on poodles).

She was ready to go, however, and usually likes to stop in the grass on the side of the building after her vet visits but was quite distressed that it was pouring rain (my fault, it seems). Another of her diva qualities is she refuses to get her feet wet. Hates, absolutely walking on anything wet. So she's shooting me these drug induced glares with tears running down her face and can't even use the bathroom because I'VE CAUSED THE GRASS TO BE WET, in addition to starving her, and making her come to the vet. How much more guilt could I endure.

Oh, it got better on the way home....an hour's drive, and she refused to lay down and sits in the front seat with me, hanging her head with her eyes shut and occasionally her feet starting to slide out from under her. By the time I got her home, I was promising never to make her go through anything like that ever again (but I probably will....next year) and let's just go into the house and have a long nap and some breakfast and all will be better.

I even went to dinner with an old friend, ordered steak (I'm usually the salad and pasta person), and brought home half of it to give to my own diva doggy to make amends again.

She seems fine this morning....Trotting through the house, having her breakfast on time, tail is wagging, all is forgiven.........until next year and she'll be calling me a liar on top of all the other.

Grammy with her own tail tucked in for now.