Cooper has been a huge joy to me for the past few months, and I fall more and more in love with him everyday. Seriously, he is a total and complete clown who makes me laugh at least once a day... but more about that later.
Despite how much I cherish and adore my Coop, I got behind schedule with his vaccinations and this past Monday evening I came home to find him very obviously sick. My first fear was that he had possibly come to the same fate that my dog Maddie did this past summer.
I called my mom and she came over and took us to the Emergency Vet. I told the vet my fears and they had another idea. After taking some samples from Coop there in the lobby, she had us go into an exam room. Cooper has contracted the parvovirus.
I admitted him to the emergency vet for the evening so that he could start the treatments he needed right away and the next morning I transferred him to my family's regular vet - Foothill Farms Veterinary Hospital.
Dr Malek and his entire staff are beyond phenomenal. The care that they are giving Cooper is amazing, and they are so personal and attentive. All week I have been calling several times each day to check in on Cooper, and they never get annoyed. Each time that I call someone goes to the room that Cooper is in and interacts with him so that they can give me an update of not only the medical issues that are on his chart but also that of his demeanor as of that moment.
In fact, when I called this afternoon I talked with a tech that I had not yet met or spoken with and when I said I was calling about him her response was "Coopers my cute little guy!" They take such a personal interest in the care of the animals that are brought to them.
They're also not uptight about their hours. While their office closes at 6pm, I don't get out of work until about 530. I still want to visit with Cooper every day, but with traffic I don't make it there until about 5:55pm. Each night they've let me in to visit with him, not once saying a word about the time, and each night I've stayed until about 6:30 or so. Still, they've never told me that its past their hours.
Cooper is making progress. We apparently caught this early enough, and with the care he's receiving its looking like he's going to pull through it just fine.
Visiting him is what I've been looking forward to the most each evening. Every time I see him he's looking better - has more energy, wants to interact with me more, and the best sign is how he tries to make a break for it when I open the door to his kennel. While he may not be out of the woods just yet, he's definitely improving well.
So, in the evenings I sit with him and love and cuddle him and sing this song to him... well, at least the parts I can remember.
Now, for some fun facts about Cooper.
His full name is Professor RB Cooper. He got that name because my aunt (who I got him from) recognized that he was the smartest of the litter and initially started calling him Professor. Then he was the first of the litter to figure out how to use the doggy door and would amuse himself by charging back and for through it... my uncle thought he looked like a rhino charging through the Serengeti so he started calling him Rhino Butt (RB). Finally, when I met him I just felt that his name was Cooper. There we have it: Professor RB Cooper. He has a few other nicknames:
Mr Cooperton
Coopster
Coop
Lil' Guy (most often used by my grandma)
Cooper the Trooper (this is the newest, for how well he's coming through this ailment)
Cooper HATES baths. As you can tell from the following post-bath look of disdain.
After a bath he will spaz out (thats the technical term) for at least a full 30 minutes. He runs around the house, rubbing himself on the couch, every chair, my bed, before he collapses, exhausted from all of the spazzing out... as shown below:
One of Coopers favorite past times is going for car rides
But not too soon after eating... otherwise he'll get carsick.
And while I may be his favorite girl, Janae, my 8 year old cousin, is a very close second.
One of Coopers favorite evening activities is to lay at my feet while I'm on the computer
And he LOVES to go visit all of our friends on the back patio at the pub
All of the love & attention from everyone tires him out.
Coopers favorite treats? Fake oreos from the treat bar at PetCo. Or, as I call them, fauxreos. He likes to hold one down on the ground, use his teeth to pop off the top cookie, then he will lick out all of the cream filling before eating the actual cookies. One day I will capture this on video.
Coopers morning demeanor is dependent upon how badly he needs to go potty.
If he needs to go potty, he paws at my face until I wake up. Then he'll gently grab my hand with his mouth and try to pull me out of bed. Then he'll try to herd me towards the back door.
My favorite mornings are the ones when he doesn't need to go potty very badly.
He'll wake me up with kisses, and once I'm awake he'll lay across my chest in an attempt to stop me from getting out of bed.
I'll move him off my chest so that I can sit up, and he'll lay across my lap. He just wants to snuggle!
I'll move him off my lap and put my feet on the floor... he lays on my feet.
When I'm getting dressed and putting on my pants, and this is my favorite part, he'll jump up and try to pull my pants back down.
Apparently he knows that no pants = don't leave the house.
He is my love and I can't wait for him to be able to come home.
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