Even though her last time in the car was an exciting trip, it’s like she knew this one was to the vet.

(Sunday Paper, Year VI, Issue 34)

I believe that we have ourselves an anxious dog.

First of all, a quick acknowledgement that it’s been a long time since I wrote about Tate.

So I need you to know that she is still the best dog.

She’s still just great with the kids, she’s so kind and loving and she’s been the perfect addition to our family.

She’s just a little bit anxious.

Which might even make her a more perfect fit for our family.

I’m not going to lie - I’ve got a touch of the anxiety.

Nothing diagnosed, so maybe I shouldn’t go around saying that, but - I mean - we’ve all got to have a little bit of it in us, right?

I just happen to firmly believe I have a lot.

When does it manifest itself? Oh, you know, before possibly stressful situations, and new situations where I don’t know what to expect…like, say, a visit to the veterinarian with a dog who didn’t love her last visit.

A year ago she went to the vet during the pandemic and it was pretty much in and out - I stood outside, they brought her in, and she was out shockingly quick.

Then, a couple of months ago she went with Kathy because she was throwing up a lot and not eating and apparently she wasn’t too keen on the vet checking her out. (She was fine, by the way. Nothing to worry about there.)

So, knowing that, I was very anxious about taking the dog this week. But I tried not to show it because I know dogs can sometimes pick up on that behavior. But she was anxious too. So maybe I was picking up on her behavior.

Regardless, the trip was a disaster.

More on that in a second.

It’s possible Tate was always anxious. But she certainly lived a more active - and interactive - life back in February of 2020. She was getting out for playtime and socializing with other dogs and seeing lots of people.

I don’t even know if her playtime place is open for playtime these days…but I do think some of her anxiety has grown out of the situation she has been in this past year-plus, where she’s gotten a little too comfortable being around only the five of us in the house and only interacting with the outside world on a daily walk.

The doctor suggested that might be the case during our brief visit.

Then the doctor prescribed a little bit of medication for when we come back this week (yay! Twice in a week!).

The idea is to sedate Tate (hey, at least we got a cool rhyme out of it!) so she’ll be more relaxed for the visit.

The question now is, can the vet give me anything so I can be more relaxed for the visit?

Notes

*Listen, I am not trying to make light of anxiety issues. Just want to make that clear. It is not crippling for me. But in these types of situations it is something I obsess about and feel great relief when it’s over.

*Running Update: Running is a good coping mechanism. So luckily I did a lot of that this week..

Saturday’s run was supposed to be 17.2 miles, from Natick into Boston - right to the finish line. Somehow it turned out to be 17.71 miles. I thought about going a little further to get to 18 miles but….I’m lucky I got to 17.71. (Well, not really lucky. I have been working very hard to get that 17.71. But I have more work to do to get myself those extra 8.5 by October 11.) (Also, cool, 17.71 is a palindrome.)

Remember, I’m running for Team Framingham, raising money for the Framingham History Center. You can contribute here if you’d like to support. Thanks to everyone who has!

*Matt Tour Update: I guess I’m just going to make this a regular thing so you can support him every week. But I did forget to mention this last week: it is wild that he is on tour with Counting Crows. He social media’ed that sentiment somewhere recently - he loves that band and always saw them when they were in town back in the late 90s, early 2000s, I guess. And it reminded me of something I had written a while back - this was when “Notes” on Facebook was a thing, because I wrote it there, I remember. Matt was doing a show in upstate New York, and he was on the bill with Buster Poindexter. Which was wild because he played the heck out of that cassette single (‘Hot Hot Hot’) back when we were kids. So this Counting Crows tour is just a macrocosm (that’s a thing, right? Opposite of microcosm?) of the Buster Poindexter performance.

*So Matt’s website is here. My Facebook is here. My twitter is here. You know what to do.

*I guess it’s because of all that rainy weather we had, but it seems impossible we’re on the cusp of a new school year.

*Last note, also Matt-related: He had a day off in St. Louis on Thursday night, and ended up with…some pretty good seats for the Cardinals game ————->