Rhinos and Rottweilers

Martin J. Fischer is some sort of self-help guru who mostly helps himself by selling books. He postulates that you can live your life either like a rhino or a cow. The rhino is strong, thick-skinned, charges full steam ahead and blazes his own trail. A cow, on the other hand, follows the herd, does the same thing day after day, etc.

Monday was the day that Vince died. I honestly don't remember a thing about Tuesday except that it was Clay's birthday and I felt bad that I didn't do anything for it. Wednesday I was in the car for 13 hours driving to and from South Carolina bringing home two new dogs, getting them settled, and making plans for their care. Thursday was the day that Sparky bloated, had surgery, and spent the night at the ER vet. On Friday Sparky went back to our vet during the day and came home that night after a different vet appointment with Clyde, the new Dane. I ended the week with two new dogs, both underweight and one with a cough. I had done nothing to advance the adoption of any current fosters. Overall, I  had just one more dog than I started with, but no dogs on the floor on my side of the bed at night.

The friend who had explained the rhino/cow analogy to me would have suggested that I just "rhino through" the week, push on, keeping going. Being a dog guy, I would substitute the rottweiler for the rhino. When met with an obstacle, rotties will often just put their head down and use it as a battering ram, pushing through with force powered by their big heads and shoulders. It's the rottweiler's go-to move when faced with a problem, just push it out of the way. And quite often it works for them. We have used the word "rottweiler" as a verb around our house ever since our first rottie, Jack, who did just that.

I didn't exactly rottweiler my way through the week, however. I certainly wasn't blazing my own trail; I was running hither and yon all week long from one problem to the next, reacting to each and moving on. The closer canine analogy is the German Shepherd. I was definitely tending to my herd, dealing with multiple issues at the same time, performing triage and addressing the most serious issues first, pushing off things that could wait to another day. Yes, I was shepherding through the week. If I was smarter and faster, I'd say I was being a Border Collie, but that's a claim I can not make.

When the weekend rolled around, it was time to pick up some loose ends. I got caught up on the job that I need to keep to pay the vet bills. I did some neglected brushing on Trooper and TJ who are blowing their coats all over our house. I cooked food for next week and made 10 pounds of Satin Balls, mostly for Clyde who really needs the nutrition, but also for Sparky. I spent much of the day trying different foods to see if I could interest Sparky in eating. He didn't care for the chicken and rice I made for him, but he liked and ate, just some plain turkey, and later, some canned dog food and Satin Balls. And I had a visit from a couple who are interested in Harvey, as seen in these pictures.

With Vince gone and Sparky staying in a crate in the kitchen for now, the dog beds on my side of the room have been empty, and that's something I could not handle. Thankfully, it took very little persuasion to get Mercedes to fill at least one of them for now.  Happy Equinox everyone.

This beautiful picture is Sparky's food dish after he
ate some canned food and Satin Balls this afternoon.