Taking The Dogs to the Rabies Clinic

Well, today was our town's annual Rabies Clinic.  We take our dogs there every year to get their shots.  And even though I think we're really supposed to by law, we don't bother taking our cat to get a rabies shot anymore.  She doesn't really like to go outside, and whenever she does actually ask to go outside, she usually only takes just a few steps out on the porch, and then hurriedly waddles her fat @$$ back inside the house as quickly as possible a few seconds later (with her droopy saddlebags a-floppin').  Domino is a housecat by choice.  So what's the use?

Anyway, last year, Jamie took the dogs to the Rabies Clinic all by himself for the first time, and it was a complete disaster.  Maddie is always fine with everything.  But Lucky is a different story.  Lucky is extremely protective.  So last year, Lucky ended up freaking out and peeing all over the car.  My car.  (Jamie wouldn't take them in his truck).  It took numerous people to hold Lucky down (and subsequently muzzling her) in order to give her her rabies shot, and somewhere in the mix, Lucky also ended up taking a nervous dump in my car, which was the terd equivalent of the cherry-on-top of a disaster sundae.  Lovely.  >:{

So this year, I decided that we would all pile up in the car together and go.  At least that way, Jamie could drive, and between me and Lilly, surely to goodness we could handle soothing and entertaining the dogs.

The picture I took below is actually Lucky yawning, but I like to pretend that she's yelling because Jamie's driving is so awful.  Jamie turns curves too hard, so my coffee travel mug ended up dumping over and spilling about half of my coffee out all over my foot.  Twice in a row.  Even though it was in the cupholder.  Boy, was I pissed.

  Lucky:  *AAAH!!!  YOU'RE GONNA GET US ALL KILLED!!!*

Plus, as we were flying down the road, I could hear the unmistakable sound that a door was not completely shut somewhere in the car.  It turned out that doofus Jamie hadn't even properly closed the back hatch of my car after he loaded up the dogs in the back.  I don't think that it would've come open as we were speeding down the road, but it's too unnerving to think that there's even a slim chance that it might, and if it did, we'd probably be having a couple of dog funerals on our hands, and severe emotional trauma about it for the rest of our lives.  So I fussed really hard at Jamie and made him pull the car over to shut the back hatch of the car all the way.  But he wouldn't pull over right away; he had to continue driving up the road for another minute to find a *good spot* to pull over, even though he could've pulled over as soon as I told him to.  Dopey dork.  He makes me so mad.  >:{

Anyway, all in all, it went well, aside from one huge snafu that lasted for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality, it was probably only 30 seconds.  As we inched closer to the area where they administer the shots, Lucky decided that she wanted to lay in my lap.  So I wrapped my arms around her, talked soothing to her, and petted her, and we were having a wonderful time.  Until Maddie eventually stepped over too closely in our direction.  I guess Lucky just suddenly went into psycho jealous mode, and as a result, Maddie instantly went into super-defensive mode, and we almost had an ultra-mega-severe dogfight on our hands.  In the tight quarters of the car.  For a while there, I wouldn't have been surprised if there had been bloodshed.  The growling, barking, and snarling was really awful, and the wild eyes and flared teeth were very scary.  It could have actually been a fairly dangerous situation.  But thankfully, since Lucky stayed in my lap, I was able to grab her leash, and Jamie grabbed Maddie's leash, and we were able to keep their heads far enough apart so that they didn't tear into each other.  I scolded and scolded and scolded loudly to try to make them stop, and I made Jamie help Maddie get up in the front seat next to him.  After we got the dogs separated, everything was fine.  Lucky still kept trying to look at Maddie so she could snarl at her, so I put a quilt up between the front and back seats so they couldn't see each other.  Crisis averted.  I think Lucky went ballistic because she just didn't want for Maddie to come over to me and *steal* the petting and attention that I was giving to her.  Lucky is an extremely jealous and way overly-protective dog.  And even though Maddie and Lucky are super-best-friends 99.9% of the time, they have gotten into some pretty scary fights a few times in the past.

The only other minor mishap that happened was that when we were only a minute away from making it back home, Lucky started whining and growling again.  It was a little scary.  I don't know if maybe she was having a little pain from her shot, or if she needed to go to the bathroom, or needed water, or she was carsick, or what.  But I was able to calm her back down, and luckily we made it home just a few moments later.

So in all, I'd say that taking the dogs to this year's rabies clinic was a success.  And when we go again next year, we'll know just what to do...Keep the dogs separated the whole time.  Maddie in the front, and Lucky in the back.  With the *privacy quilt* firmly installed between them.  Whew!

And now I've got enough dog hair and dander all in my car to scrape together and make a whole new pet!  :/  Gee, I know what I'll be doing tomorrow...vacuuming it all out.  *sigh*

Here's a montage of the whole ordeal: