Abstinence

Lucy's nose has been active recently. Both nostrils are running now and the goo is yellow-green. Gross. I'm sorry. I never thought I'd be so attuned to this kind of thing and I feel for parents with children who are chronically ill. Your life becomes focused on little things that others would rather ignore. What concerns me is that Lucy is already on antibiotics, so does this mean that she has built up an immunity to doxycycline or that the bacteria is getting an upper hand (stronger, meaner) or something else is going on? The vet and I are becoming best friends.

So what does this have to do with abstinence? Her cocktail ball has been removed. This is her most favorite toy. In fact, it is the only toy she's had that she hasn't lost interest in. At cocktail hour, she starts hounding me to produce the famous orange ball. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of nose action from her: rolling, snorting, poking—and all of those things seem to aggravate an already delicate schnoz. In order to (hopefully) clear up her nose, I've taken her ball away. Last night was the first and she definitely was not happy about it. She waited patiently at first and then not so patiently. She wandered around looking for it, she talked to me about it, gave me the hopeful eye, then the pleading eye, then the evil eye. She will not see it tonight either.

It is difficult to explain abstinence to a dog.