Charlie's first emergency vet visit

Yesterday started off like any ordinary Saturday in the Pernicek household. We were planning on traveling to Central City to spend time with Michelle's family for Father's Day. I like to get up early on the weekend (when I don't work) to spend time relaxing on the couch, the rays of sun entering in the window, with a cup of coffee, and the laptop or a book. Charlie was sleeping next to me for a while until Michelle got up to enjoy our beginning laziness of the day.

Charlie needs serious and regular attention in the grooming department. He has eye ducts that produce a lot of excess discharge and we need to wipe that away for him. He also has a lot of ear buildup so those must be cleaned. Additionally his long hair (which falls out everywhere all the time) needs brushed and often becomes matted. We are not exactly the best human parents when it comes to the grooming department because we certainly do not maintain a regular schedule.

On this particular morning I was distracted. I was engrossed in The National Writing Project's Blog Talk Radio. If you know nothing about the National Writing Project, it is a phenomenal organization that believes teachers are the change agents in education and since teachers are the ones with the knowledge and expertise, they are the ones who are bust suited to improve teaching and learning in schools. This is accomplished in many ways, in various factions, mainly through local sites in states all across the nation. It is the only federally funded program that focuses solely on improving writing. Check out the NWP website to learn more about this wonderful organization.

I had my headphones in, listening to editors and authors of the book What Teaching Means: Stories From America's Classrooms. This book, in which I have an essay, is a unique, honest portrayal of what it means to teach, and my friend Susan Martens was on the show, along with some other authors who I had not met.The conversation had my entire attention when Charlie let out a loud yelp. I looked up briefly and saw that he was OK. Michelle was cutting out matted chunks of hair under Charlie's ears. I quickly went back to Blog Talk Radio.

I don't remember what really happened next, but something pulled me away from the show and I saw Michelle huddled on the floor of the living room, crying, and clutching Charlie close to her. I asked what she was doing and she said that she accidentally cut him. I probably was not very nice in my response, forcefully saying, "You cut him?" I hit pause, pulled out the headphones, and went to investigate. Poor Charlie, had a significant surface level cut underneath his left ear. Charlie was acting fine, but the visit to the vet ended in three staples, some medication, and bit of sympathy and mild scolding from the vet. Charlie loves his vet and he didn't object or make any protests to the staples. He was just happy to be able to see more people than originally planned that day.

After the Vet, we headed on to Central City and continued with rest of our day, where Charlie enjoyed himself like he always does, chasing the other dogs, taking naps, running around the house, and dashing to the refrigerator every time someone went to get ice for their drink.