Yeah, this is a post about my dog. I know it’s annoying to some people, but if people I only know as passing acquaintances can post pictures of the insides of their uteruses (uteri?) online, I think this is okay.  

In all photos, Heidi appears to be contemplating serious questions of great importance. If not for her lack of opposable thumbs and her inability to speak English, she could be figuring out the cure for cancer.  It’s just the schnauzer beard and those gruff little eyebrows because I can assure you she’s kind of a lazy C-student and the camera can’t capture her dopey look.

Heidi at full ear attention.

She can be smart when she wants to be: she learned how to sit and lay down just by viewing hand commands, but she regularly runs into glass doors.  I think  of her as a doggie version of Phoebe Buffay from Friends: an oblivious free spirit with some flashes of brilliance.

She is a special unicorn.

She’s not  particularly motivated to be Lassie because she gets by on her looks 90% of the time. She’s abnormally small for a schnauzer, and she looks like a perpetual puppy.  Here’s a picture of her with her best frenemy Bailey for comparison.

Heidi likes to share with Bailey. Bailey likes to destroy Heidi.

So, she’s tiny and therefore cuter, and she has unusual coloring for a schnauzer which makes her even more interesting to strangers.  She’s like a more active stuffed animal.

LIke a great stuffed animal, you can dress her up too.

She’s grown accustomed to universal admiration (with the exception of her best frenemy who kind of hates her), and she swans through her doggie life under the assumption that everyone wants to cuddle her or give her treats. Frankly, she’s sort of indifferent to praise at this point.

This is Heidi sleeping through your admiration.

A couple of evenings ago on our nightly constitutional, I noticed she wasn’t actually peeing and that she was instead dribbling blood.  I assumed a UTI, but it seemed wise to call the emergency vet and they told me to bring her in.  Nobody thinks peeing blood is a good sign.  Suddenly dumping the second glass of wine into the sink felt like a prescient choice.

Don’t worry- I think that drink is mostly juice. I think.

We drove to the all night emergency clinic. I watched the digital display of my remaining gas miles dwindle with some discomfort (why didn’t I fill up after the grocery store!?).  I imagined running out of gas a mile from the vet and walking down the dirty streets of Sandy Springs at midnight with a lame dog.  Heidi yawned at me and blinked her impossibly long eyelashes, totally nonplussed.

See all the Effs she gives?

At the clinic, the staff ushered us to a room where I bit my nails and Heidi started to get a whiff of something unpleasant happening to her. She doesn’t fear the vet like other dogs, but she’s not a fan of discomfort in any variety. She usually ends our walks by sitting primly in the grass and refusing to budge once she decides the heat is not to her liking. The staff fussed and fawned over her and the word “cute” was tossed around multiple times while I waited forever for the vet to return with a diagnosis.

Luckily, the vet pronounced her to be UTI positive.  Heidi stood on the exam table with her ears thoughtfully perked and her nose quivering, but she was entirely unfazed by the large needles they poked in her leg for pain meds and antibiotics. They could have been giving her acupuncture for all the concern she showed.

Isn’t that the cutest bandage you’ve ever seen?

We made it home where I read the vet’s directions word for word and Heidi leaped on to my cream duvet  and smeared some drops of blood on it.  When I gasped and hissed, “Heidi!”, she froze mid-circle turn and looked up at me with enormous deep eyes and quirked ears.  She flicked her ears like little antennae trying to read my mood, and then she flattened them and wagged her tail a little.

Sigh, I’m an easy mark for her.

That little manipulator. She really does get by on her looks.