Phantom Odor

Although this isn't about Alvin, I thought I would include it because in actuality, it tends to be Stevie with the funniest stories and she is a dog that certainly deserves a blog.  In the absence of her own blog, I will write an entry about our recent vet visit.

We went to the vet on Friday.  I have been avoiding going back to my vet because I haven't been there since Timmie died.  He did not die at my vet's, but rather at the emergency vet but my regular vet is an emotional place for me because Timmie adored him.  He loved him so much that I would take him along when he didn't even have an appointment.  I would take one of the other dogs for their appointment and Timmie would come bounding in looking for the vet.  He would then whine when another dog got to be up on the table because Timmie loved to be on the table getting all of the attention.  When I saw my vet today he started crying talking about Timmie.  I can't convey how special he was to everyone.  I have never been around a dog remotely like Timmie and sadly, I am sure that I never will.  The good news is that I knew it at the time and I so enjoyed watching people's reaction to him.  Everyone just ewwwed and awwwed over him. 

So, I got through that and put Stevie on the table.  She was in there for possible ear infections, a lump near her butt, and a suspected UTI.  She does not share Timmie's love for my vet and began placing her front paws on my shoulders while repeatedly trying to climb up me.  Because the poor thing had to have every area prodded and examined, she had finally had it and tried to bite the vet.  It was more of a warning, back off because if I really wanted to I could bite you, type gesture.  Later she lost all hope in my rescuing her and tried to do a suicide leap off the table but I caught her. 

During all of this my vet kept sniffing her and I couldn't figure out what in the world he was doing.  He started to say that there was a "phantom odor" coming from her and he couldn't locate it.  He smelled her ears, her mouth, and even her paws.  Near the end of his search, when clearly it wasn't located in the usual areas, I started to panic while wondering if I was the phantom odor.  It starts to make a person very insecure when the odor can't be located on the dog.  I started to try to make excuses about her having not had a bath for two weeks and that she has old dog breath but he didn't seem to think it was caused by either of those factors.  He never located the "phantom odor" but I wonder if he was too nice to say it was me?  What made it worse is that I couldn't smell anything and since I know that people can't detect their own stench I have decided that the next time we go in, I am going to do an extra scrub down, gargle mouth wash in the parking lot, and arrive in a cloud of perfume.  In the meantime, Stevie smells fine to me but the "phantom odor" may explain why neither of the dogs have been coming too close to me lately.