Olive Oil Dog

Thompson, the terrier, and I have been losing a battle for months against a pernicious staff infection. Thompson is old, his nurse hasn't been regular enough in administering either his twice weekly "leave the medicated shampoo on for 15 minutes" baths or his daily antibiotics, and he greatly aggravates the infection by all the licking, scratching and biting of himself which he does to try to relieve the itching. After a month or two of making Thompson wear a lampshade collar for most hours of the day, I was sick of the lack of progress and discouraged over his visible despondency. So I decided to try a remedy from my childhoood.

After another shorter-than-its-supposed-to-be bath, I slathered him with olive oil from head to toe and dressed him in baby clothes purchased at the thrift store for said purpose. Dressing a dog who doesn't want clothes is hard enough, but dressing an olive oil slick dog WITHOUT getting any oil on oneself is apparently, a feat I'm not capable of performing.

Thompson reminded me of Olivia, the pig, of children's book fame walking around the house with his black bell bottoms and skinny legs. I don't have any good face shots, because he refused to cooperate - every time he saw me coming with the camera he made a hasty retreat.

Even though he didn't cooperate for photos, it seemed like he had relief from itchy skin for the first time in a looooong time, So, the next day I decided to slather him once more, this time reeeaaally rubbing it in till all his nasty crusty scabs came off - pretty close to an hour massage. A clean thrift store outfit, some help from David to dress the reluctant, oily, fashion model, and a couple more circuits of the house with me chasing my photo op. Reminded me of Snowbell, the cat, talking to Stuart Little, the mouse "talk to the butt, talk to the butt".

Finally, to get away from the camera he traveled through our bedroom to the bathroom. He climbed into the shower, stuck his nose in the corner and refused, absolutely REFUSED to turn around until I left the bedroom. I don't know - maybe he was offended by the pink girly outfit. So now its been a couple days, he reeks again, and its time for another treatment. Sigh. Maybe David will do the honors this time....