Mina surgery, Celeste class

Miss Mina, of the pit bull clan, is going in for a few procedures on Monday. A long, long time ago, Mina saw fit to get a raw marrow bone stuck around her lower jaw. A vet had to sedate her for its removal. In her attempt at removing the bone, she damaged her lower canine. It would be a couple years before half of it would fall off. And at every vet visit, I would ask the same question - is it time to get that tooth removed? No, they said, I could keep putting it off a bit.

Well, "a bit" has arrived. In addition to the tooth extraction, Mina has a cyst she needs removed. A happy, friendly, benign cyst is what we're hoping.

Then there is her right shoulder, which has decided to rebel every 10-15 days and throw Mina off her game. Being a stoic dog, Mina refuses to acknowledge that this pains her. Mina has a structurally unsound right shoulder/leg, so I guess, at the age of 10+, time is catching up with her. So in addition to the tooth extraction and cyst removal, she'll be getting radiographed. Fun times.

And yes, I'm far more worried than Mina will be at the vet. My biggest fear is that, after spending a $1,000 for all these procedures, she's going to need some freakishly expensive surgery to repair her leg. This is silly, of course. More likely, we'll just have to mitigate the pain and deal with what I assume is the side effect of poor breeding and "old" age.

Think good thoughts for my spunky little pit bull of doom. :)

In other dog news, my other dog, Celeste will be starting her first obedience class next week. I've been putting this off for two years, primarily because I was focused on Mina's classes and also because Celeste had some health issues early on that prevented her from enrolling in any class. Unfortunately, Celeste discovered she is quite petrified of other dogs and lets them know how she feels through what she calls Better Living Through Snarling.

She wasn't always that way, she used to be a puppy who loved interacting with other dogs. She had two bad experiences - one involving an overzealous humper and the other a miniature Dachshund who decided to eat Celeste's face. Anyway, this class should be a good experience for her, as she will get to be around dogs with nothing but good things happening. At the very least, she will learn she can be near dogs without fear that they will greet her or interact with her. She's such a people-focused, semi-intense dog who I think will enjoy obedience classes.