All day today I looked forward to getting my Tobi home. The seconds dragged on and on like hours. Finally, I made it through crazy traffic (the genius working for the NCDOT that decided to shut down large portions of two major roads, while also detouring one to the other, needs to be shot) and got to the hospital on time for pick-up at 6 pm. At 7:30 pm, I finally got Tobi in the car and headed home.
Once home, I realized that her crate was not going to due afterall. She barely fit into it pre-surgery (she's my gentle giant that just kept growing), but it wasn't horrible. Plus, in the midst of all the craziness I still hadn't decided upon an alternative crate that would best fit all of our needs. Therefore, I hadn't ordered one or gone shopping for one in person either. Well, that was a mistake I had to fix. Meanwhile, I also needed dinner.
So, I left the girls with Artis and did something completely against my nature--I went to Petco. Yes, it's true. I supported a box store. What can I say? I was desperate. Anyway, I went and got this $90 crate and then stopped and got dinner at a drive-thru on my way home. I was gone for maybe 30 minutes. I came back in the door to find Artis looking all frazzled while he sat on the floor, Matza was in her crate freaking out (she hates being in her crate), and Tobi was sitting on a towel in the middle of the floor just shaking away. All hell had broken loose in that 30 minutes! It turns out that Tobi wasn't fitting into her crate at all, so he let her out, but then Matza attacked her to try to play, which caused Tobi to scream from the pain, so he put Matza in her crate and Tobi was left scared and shaking on the floor because he didn't dare touch her since he couldn't handle hearing her scream again. So, I picked Tobi up and held her close (she immediately stopped shaking), let Matza out of her crate so she'd stop barking, and eventually ate dinner while sitting on the couch with Tobi right next to me.
Meanwhile...
I decided that $90 was too much to have spent on a crate, so I got looking on Craigslist. I found two that sounded promising--one was only $30 and much larger. It looked brand-new and the seller lived close by. I emailed her and she immediately wrote back. She was willing to meet tonight, so we made arrangements. In the meantime I had Tobi back in her crate to get her to try to lay down. She made herself extra big, looked pitiful, and kept crying. Artis refused to make eye contact with her because she was milking it for all it was worth. So, I left her in there long enough to run over and meet the seller and get back home. Once home, I got the crate in place and all good to go. I got back downstairs to collect Tobi and what did the monster do?? She laid right down and curled up in her small crate!!! Yes, she in fact fit the entire time and had just been being a stinker while I was running all over creation to get her this bigger crate tonight. I just now tried to get her out of the smaller crate so that she can go to bed in the big one but she doesn't want to move. So, despite my extra efforts to get it all ready for her tonight, it was all for naught and she's spending the night in her small crate. Sigh.
I can tell we've got a long road ahead. Artis is terrified he's going to break her, Matza won't leave her alone, Tobi just wants to sleep and cuddle with me, and I don't have any clue about what I'm doing. Artis half-jokingly said he thinks we should call the vet hospital and tell them that they were wrong--that she's not ready to be home and that she needs to come back and stay or they need to come here to take care of her. I think once these first few days are over with and we get a routine figured out, we'll be OK. Until then, I may lose my mind trying to survive.
But, I still am just so happy she's home--I can ruffle up her crazy 'fro any ol' time I want to and I wouldn't have it any other way!
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