Another glamorous part of my job...

Today I had to take the dog to get her Lyme vaccine. I guess they couldn't give it to her at her regular appt. a few months ago for some reason. The vet is less than 1/4 mile away, so I opted to walk her over instead of dealing with the car situation. No need for her to eat the carpet of pretzels and french fries the kids have worked so hard at laying. Let's just review that she's not a clam dog when it comes to leash walking. She gets all excited and drags her walker. I thought I'd use this opportunity to talk calmly to her and try to get her to slow down. The walk to the vet was uneventful, though not exactly a leisurely stroll. I felt like we'd had a good lesson.

While at the vet, Cammy was scared to get on the scale, scared of their treats, scared of the water they offered her, etc. She was panting and shaking the whole time. I was sweating a bit at this point as well. She took her shot like a champ...much better than my human children. She was ready to get out of there, so writing the check was a bit tricky and then we were off.

As we neared the corner to our street I saw a dog and it's Mom coming toward us. Trying not to panic, I urged Cammy to stop sniffing things and get around the corner before we met up. At the corner we encountered a DPW truck filling potholes. She panicked with fear at the sight of the truck and workers and backed between my legs. Picture it: I'm trying to get her (between 45 and 50 pounds) untangled from my legs and my flip-flop goes flying. Now the snotty lady and her snotty, well-behaved dog are strutting by. The dog from the house on the corner (a foot from us) and Cammy start barking at each other and digging at the fence. The neighbor starts yelling at his dog and shooting looks at me. The DPW workers are staring at the 3-ring circus. I'm sweating bullets. Ugh...are you kidding me?

What got me really steamed was that as I was trying to get Cam out from my legs and around the corner I was saying, "Don't be scared, just walk! Keep going, don't be scared!" I hadn't noticed the dog in the yard. So just as Cam was starting to bark, I hear the lady (with massive attitude) say, "I don't think he's scared!" Wha? Of all the nerve! She and her well-behaved dog could just keep on walking! I bet her kids never flipped a nutty in Target either! And P.S. my dog's a SHE!

Needless to say, Cammy walked into the house, drank about a gallon of water and collapsed on the cool tiles for a nap. I'm thinking that taking the 1 pound cat to the vet next week will be FAR less eventful.

On the subject of Lyme: I asked why there isn't a vaccine for humans (as I have several friends who's families have been affected) and she said there used to be one! Since at the end of the day pharmaceutical companies are businesses that need to make money and Lyme is pretty isolated to the little 'ole northeast of the U.S., they discontinued it. They couldn't exactly make it a world-wide vaccine. Boo, I say as a person from the northeast, Boo! So, my pooch gets Frontline AND a vaccine and my kids play at their own risk. Nice.