Adventures with Kobe

For those who have followed my blog, you probably remember me mentioning our 2 dogs and cat.

We lost Kaly in January but we still have her older brother, Kobe. Kobe is my husband's dog. Plain and simple. I tolerate Kobe. I can describe him in one word: neurotic.

He's a good dog but I don't think he was the brighest dog in the pack. At his prime, he was 118 lbs and a good looking dog. But, if a thunderstorm comes through, he runs around the house like a 5 lb. wussy. The cat just looks at him like, "Dude, pull yourself together".

An example: A thunderstorm came through one afternoon when we were at work. Kobe apparently felt the need to get into the guest room even though the door was shut. So, he tried to dig his way under the door. $7,000 later, we have new carpeting in the house.

Are you getting the picture? He's an asshole.

He's now 11 and near the end of his lifespan. Over the last year, we've been dealing with his inability to hold his bowels. He'll poop in his sleep or when he gets excited or barks. Thank God it hasn't been "messy" and you can pick it up and move on.

But, still. It's GROSS.

Over the last few months, he has also started to leak urine. He's not leaving puddles in the house or completely emptying his bladder. It's more of a drip. Which causes him to constantly lick himself.

GROSS and ANNOYING.

So now I've set the stage to tell you about our trip to the vet last week.

It was just a check-up to get his medications filled - easy, peasy, right?

We walked into the office and there was a lady with her dog at the counter so Todd took Kobe and stood to the side of the front door. Kobe is pretty good with other dogs (plus, he's so damn old, he probably couldn't see him). Kobe decided to lay down and we stood there waiting to check in.

After a few minutes, Todd looks at me and says, "Kobe is pooping". Greeeaaaattt.

Trying to be discreet, Todd hands me the leash and heads to the public bathroom at the end of the lobby to get some paper towels. He cleans it up and heads back toward the bathroom.

We got the mess but not the smell. So, now the entire lobby smells like poop.

Meanwhile, one of the techs comes out and wants to weigh Kobe. I get him up and we start heading toward the end of the lobby where the scale is. Kobe loses his footing on the tile and takes a header. The tech tries to help him up by lifting his back legs and presses on his bladder.

Kobe starts peeing everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE.

So, I'm standing there in a puddle of pee and we're trying to get him up and I see Todd out of the corner of my eye.

He's poking his head out from the bathroom.

He mouths, "I think I overflowed the toilet".

Could this get any more embarrassing?

I looked down at his feet and I see water starting to come out into the hallway.

Yep, he overflowed the toilet. He put the poop AND the paper towels down the toilet.

At this point, the tech is so focused on trying to get Kobe up that she doesn't see what's going on.

I looked at Todd with my "Fix it!" face and he says, "I tried".

He comes out of the bathroom and walks over to us and says, "Um, there's a problem in the bathroom".

Of course the entire staff was very nice about the whole thing and thank god they know us. If it were our first time there, I don't think we would've gone back.

Anyway, we got more meds for Kobe but I'm not sure it's helping that much. I basically told Todd that I won't put up with it when the babies come. So, Kobe has about 3 months left.

That may sound mean to some but I've been more than tolerant with that dog over the last 11 years and I can't have a dog peeing and pooping in the house with 2 babies. Todd isn't ready to let him go yet. In Todd's mind, he's still able to go for very short walks, he still eats and he can still climb the stairs so he has quality of life.

I understand that but what about our quality of life? We've been dealing with this problem for over a year and it's not going to get any better.

I'm hoping that we'll have some divine intervention and Kobe will go naturally so we won't have to make that decision. But, I'm prepared to if he's still here in October. He's had a good life with us.

What would you do? Am I being heartless?