Kaiju has earned the following two new nicknames in the past month.

   druggy

Snappy McGrowly: The night after his knee surgery on July 9, he had come home and was quietly resting in his crate.  Before we went to bed, we wanted to take him out to pee. We tried to lure him out of the crate with commands and treats. This usually works fine, but that night, the drugged out pup would only raise his eyebrows to look at us, and would not even sit up.

We needed to take him out regardless to make sure he wouldn’t have an accident in the crate overnight. So we put our arms in the crate and tried to carry him out. We had done this many times when he was little, so we didn’t think too much of it…..  well, until Kaiju suddenly raised his head, snapped at the hands that were attempting to lift him, and let out some serious growls.  We were totally stunned. He is normally a very quiet and gentle dog. He does not mind being held, either. We realized then how scared and in pain he was.  We tried not to react, and went ahead to pick him up anyway. Fortunately, once he was held, he was okay. We carried him out to his “spot”. He did his business, got carried back into the crate, and fell asleep again.

Kaiju has not repeated the behavior since that one time, so that’s a relief. But, the thing is, when you receive such an unfriendly response from a cute and cuddly animal that you’ve been close to, the feeling of betrayal kinda shakes you and sticks with you…  After we recovered from the initial shock, though, we gave him this nickname. It helps us make light of the incident and move on, I think. Nowadays, we give Kaiju belly rubs, and say “Remember the time you growled at us, Mr. Snappy McGrowly? You were so scared… You’re gonna be okay, though, because you’re such a good boy!”

   don't call me p-boy!!

P-boy:  It seems that Kaiju’s skittishness has hit new high (or low?).

This past weekend, we needed to get some dog food, so we took Kaiju with us for the ride. He loves short car rides, and we try to take every opportunity to get him out of the house so he can see and smell outside things from the safety of the car booster seat.

When we arrived at the store, we carried him in because he was still not allowed to do much more than potty-break walks. Unfortunately, the setting for the entrance was bad (for him). You walk in and the first thing you see and hear is a laundry dryer going at a full speed. The place is called LaundroMutt. Aside from the nice little shop, it is mostly a self-service dog washing place, so it’s very lively and noisy.

As Paul stepped in and through the washing area towards the shop, Kaiju started peeing in his arms. He did not make any noise. He did not even squirm, so it took us a while to notice the situation. When we did notice, he had already made a wet trail on the floor.

Paul walked right back and out the door immediately, and I took the paper towel and spray to clean up the floor. Ugh. Did he think we’d put him in the dryer?  Or was he afraid for all those dogs in the big sinks being scrubbed by their owners? It was quite distressing. This nickname will help us get over it, too, I hope.