Chaos continues

Today I have a sore hand -- as a result of a dog bite. My dog. She had a brown paper bag in her mouth, and I tried to take it off her. I didn't realise it had food in it, and she didn't want to give it up. So she had a go at me. Now, had she had her collar on, none of this would've happened, but she ate her collar on Thursday while I was at work. True. All that was left was the buckle. Friday, Sir Talkalot saw the remainder in a -- well, that's probably too much information. Anyway, the bite wasn't too bad, but one tooth had pierced the skin and gone in quite deeply, so I rang the hospital to see if I should update my tetanus shot, and they said I should come in and get it looked at as I might need prophylactic antibiotics.

When I went in, the nurses asked what kind of dog I had, and were all surprised because Golden Retrievers don't usually bite. And they don't usually, but ours has been quite funny at times about her food. Only ever about that. One asked if there had been any changes in the house recently, and I said we had got a new pup. She asked how long ago, and I said three weeks. And she nodded and said that would be it. And I was about to say that we'd all been careful to make a big fuss of the dog, when it occurred to me that this wasn't about jealousy, but about becoming territorial over food. At first, they shared a food bowl (not deliberately -- we feed them in separate bowls as they get different foods, but one will always go to the other bowls), and if the pup wanted something of the dog's, the dog would stand back. But this has changed recently. The puppy has started attacking the dog to get something off her -- a bone, a chicken wing, whatever. The dog put up with this once or twice, and then went beserk. We had to pull them apart. It was their first altercation in three weeks, and we thought the dog was going to really hurt the pup. PS was in the hospital with me, and I started talking about this, and she said that the pup had tried to take the bag off the dog. Life is just like fiction -- it makes so much more sense when you can see the motivation. Of course, it isn't always so obvious in life, but yesterday it was.

I feel like I have had my share of doctors lately. Between my allergic reaction, visits to the gynae, hip specialists for Princess Sleepyhead, the GP for referrals, I seem to still be as immersed in the medical system as I was when I was working in the lab. Only now I'm on the wrong side of it all. In my hutch, I have a letter from the hospital the other night re the allergic reaction, which I'm supposed to take to the GP. I know he's going to refer me on to an allergist. I have a referral that I've had since last November to get my eyes checked out for glaucoma, as my dad has it, and it's heredity. I have a referral for PS to see a new paediatrician, because hers is booked out to November, and we should go shortly. I feel like all I'm doing is seeing doctors. I suppose I shouldn't complain because it's all pretty minor stuff in the scheme of things. It's just that all these appointments take up time -- time spent in the waiting room is time I could be writing. I'll often read, but sometimes there's lots of noise and distractions, especially if I'm accompanying a child.