I held you in my arms.

Our dog Rufus was overdue for a nail trimming. Trimming a dog’s nails are not nearly as easy or simple as clipping a human’s. The clippers look like really thick scissors but with a hole punched out of the ends of the blades. We were feeling confident having done it before, after careful research. So my boyfriend, Sam, sits in a chair and makes Rufus stand on his hind legs. I sit in front of both of them for moral support and to try comfort Rufus.

Sam snips one nail and Rufus breaks out of Sam’s leg -lock, squirming his upper body until he breaks out. I just started laughing it looked so funny to watch. He scooped up the puppy and Sam went to do the second nail and Rufus again pulled out of Sam’s grasp. There was really nothing I could do, so I decided to video tape it. Once the dog was back in position Sam was able to do another nail but not before he got away for the last time. Sam was getting a little annoyed with my lack of effort, so helped to prop Rufus up and rubbed his belly while Sam was finished. 

“There you go, all done!” said Sam. I gave a quick glance to check out his handiwork and to my horror Rufus’s paw was all bloody. The vein in one of Rufus’s nails had been cut because we took too much nail off and he was bleeding profusely. We grabbed paper towels and I held him on the couch, with his paw up in the air. I even put pillows, plural, under his head for added comfort. 

We felt like the worst parents. Here we were laughing at him for struggling to get away. I held him in my arms like a mother cradling a baby and Sam grabbed the bag of “Mini T-Bones”. He proceeded to hand feed them to our wounded animal like an ancient king being hand-fed grapes by his servants. I rubbed Rufus’s tummy as his little paw kept on bleeding. I held and fed him treats for almost two hours until the bleeding stopped. Once I had Rufus situated on the couch Sam took out his phone and deleted all of the videos. We didn’t want P.E.T.A. to come after us.