Busy Day in Fort St. James

Daphne

I’m a big dog person. The goofier and friendlier the dog the better. But Daphne, a grouchy little dachshund-Chihuahua mix who was frankly a little bitey, is the dog that I will always remember of the 35-ish spay/neuter patients that came through the first day of the NWBC CAAT clinic.

The general rule is first-come first-served in terms of order of patients. The reality though is that the non-stop barkers get bumped up on the priority list. You’re welcome, cats in neighboring crates. Daphne worked her high-pitched bark hard to move up on the list.

When she found herself in the exam area, she may have regretted the hard fought campaign to get out of the crate. Halfway wearing a muzzle, Daphne glared anxiously at Laura, our fearless team leader, who sat on the floor next to her patiently waiting for Daphne to calm down so that she could be examined before surgery.

The next time I saw Daphne, she was sedated on an operating table ready to be spayed.

Dr. Rob Spooner asked if I wanted to observe. “Sure,” I thought, “I can do this.” I was all bravado “Oh I’m not squeamish” until he poked his finger into the incision. It was absolutely fascinating to watch, though, and a lot of deep slow breathes later, I had survived watching my first in-person surgery! Daphne did well too, though I think it’s fair to say that she bore no risk compared to the risk of this newbie passing out.

For all of her bravado early on, Daphne turned out to be quite the cuddler in recovery – she was a lazy one and took her time waking up fully. Or she was working me for the attention. We wanted to move things along though because her temp was a little low and getting her to wake up would help with that. So I had to resort to doing some prodding her to wake her up – a show of questionable judgment with this wee bitey one. I was quite pleased when I got a growl out of her, but then she nestled up against me to nap some more. Her pre-op drama must have exhausted her. I couldn’t let her sleep but I swaddled her. Rocked her and walked with her while I chatted her up: “Hey, Daphne! Who’s the good girl? C’mon you can growl again. Put that tongue in your mouth – you look ridiculous.” We bonded.

I would be remiss not to give a little shout out to Daphne to thank her for not peeing on me during recovery. After a life of cramming my entire closet into a suitcase to take over packing to the nth degree every time I travel, I chose this trip to become a minimalist packer with lots of planned re-wears. One of my first hands on tasks this morning was a full body dog “hug” to immobilize him for a pre-op exam. Total. Packing. Fail. From the bottom of my heart, thanks, Daphne, for not adding bodily fluids.

-Sarene Bourdages