[Dailydrool] Nail trimming

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

Our Elsinore tolerates her nails being trimmed with the Dremel but  
strongly opposes being touched with nail clippers. For the first  
year, Ken had to hold onto her when I Dremeled her nails, but since  
then, she's let me do it. She likes to constantly reposition herself,  
which means I end up feeling like a geriatric break dancer, spinning  
slowly around on my back on the kitchen floor, trying to catch up  
with her feet. I move the Dremel across each nail for an out-loud  
count of four. When I've counted four on all the nails on one paw, I  
give her a piece of cheese. Elsinore now knows how to count to four  
for four times in a row. What was that about bassets being the tenth  
dumbest breed?

Young Charlie won't go near the Dremel and I haven't taken the time  
to work with him on getting used to it. Sometimes I trim his nails a  
few at a time after he's fallen asleep on the sofa with us while  
watching tv at night. Doing it this way means the nail trimming can  
take up to a week to accomplish. Sometimes I follow a Drooler's  
wonderful suggestion and smear peanut butter with a spatula on the  
kitchen floor (the Drooler said to smear it on a wall, but I just  
can't bring myself to do that). This distracts Charlie enough for me  
to get all his nails trimmed by the time he's done cleaning up the  
peanut butter. He still tries to make it difficult for me to hold  
onto his feet, but it's harder for him to do so because the peanut  
butter is such a huge draw. I think it helps that the only time he  
gets peanut butter is when he gets his nails trimmed. That makes the  
peanut butter more of a special treat.

And then there was our late, great Jane Basset who hated having her  
nails trimmed but would allow me to do it nonetheless. She never  
struggled, she never pulled away, she never even thought of snapping  
at me. She just put her head down and silently endured with an  
expression of deep suffering designed to make me feel so horrible  
about what I was doing to her that I'd stop and never do it again. It  
didn't work. I caught on to her form of emotional manipulation early  
on in our relationship. I think our Jane would say that one of the  
best things about being at the Bridge, besides all the deer to chase,  
is that you never have to have your nails trimmed, ears cleaned, or  
anal glands expressed ever again once you get there.

Elizabeth