A.J. is very tired of his bandage.

I took him out for a walk this morning. First I put the little plastic makeshift bootie on to protect his bandage. This “bootie” is made out of an IV bag, string, and duct tape. But because they bandaged his whole paw, I need to put the bootie on to keep the bandage dry and intact.

What this means is that as we walk down the street, A.J. limps along, making a very loud “Swish Slap – Swish Slap – Swish Slap” noise as he scrapes his plastic bootie along the sidewalk.

This bootie is not the most sturdy thing ever concocted. I added the duct tape after a couple of short walks started to rip holes in the plastic. So, because of the lack of bootie sturdiness, the swish-slapping, the limping caused by the oversized bootie, and the fact that there is an actual wound under all that, I’ve been keeping A.J.’s walks very short. And for a very energetic dog, this is torture.

So when we set out for our walk this morning, A.J. was bursting with energy, ready to go. We swish-slapped our way down the street, A.J. limping along as fast as he could. When we got to the corner where we’d normally turn towards the park, he hesitated when I went the other direction. But he came along, and we went a couple more blocks. Then I turned towards home.

A.J. stopped. He faced the other direction and wouldn’t even turn to look at me.

“Come on bud, this way.”

Nothing.

(Happy voice) “Come on, let’s go!”

Nothing.

So we stood there on the corner. And we stood. And we stood.

(Happy, excited voice) “Okay A.J., Let’s GO!!”

A.J. sat.

This whole time his nose was working overtime, but other than that he wasn’t moving. So we stayed at the corner a little longer. We were probably there for about five minutes. Finally, in a sterner voice this time: “Come on bud, let’s go.”

He finally got up and came with me. After a couple more blocks I tried to turn again, and again he stopped. This time either direction would get us home, so I said “OK” and let him make the choice. He was as happy and could be that he’d got his way this time.

One more day of bandage.