Well, at least I know his name now,Chloe thought, as she leaned down over Bella again.
“Thank you, Dr. Chloe,” the boy said, with a slight sniffle. “I’m Ash.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Ash,” she said, as she rifled around for a pair of forceps. The previous owners had shown her whereeverything was, but she wasn’t exactly feeling super prepared for all of this!
Luckily they were in a sensible place, and she turned back toward Bella, who stared at her with eyes like saucers, a low whine coming from her throat.
Chloe turned to Ash. “Okay, Ash – I’m going to need you to be my assistant too and do something for me.”
Ash nodded, his face grave. “Okay.”
“Bella is very stressed right now, and needs everyone around her to be really calm and not make any sudden movements or sounds,” Chloe said, her voice low and calm. “And if Bella starts to get panicky, I need you to stay back. Is that okay?”
It would be better for Bella to have familiar people in the room, but if she started to snap or struggle, Chloe couldn’t risk Ash or his mother getting hurt – she knew Bella would never hurt Ash normally, but a panicking dog could be dangerous to anyone. She didnotneed to be worrying about their safety while trying to extract the ball.
If all else failed, she could sedate Bella, but hopefully she could calm her enough in order to make sedation unnecessary.
“Okay,” Chloe muttered, before devoting all of her attention to Bella, who was trembling on the exam table. “Hi, sweet girl,” she murmured soothingly. “Can I just have another look in your mouth? Is that okay?”
A low, ominous sound came from Bella’s throat, and Chloe steeled herself. Bella’s message was perfectly clear:
Stay back.
As much as she wanted to coax Bella into a relaxed state, it was starting to look more and more like sedation might be necessary.
“Good girl,” she said softly as she gently stroked Bella’s flank. “You’ll show me your mouth, won’t you, Bella?”
Bella bared her teeth with a snarl.
Well, I guess that kind of counts as showing me your mouth.
She opened her mouth, ready to warn Ash to stand back, when there was a sudden movement out the corner of her eye. Before she could even quite comprehend what was happening, Ethan was at Bella’s side, stroking her and murmuring soothing words into her ear.
And Bella… wassurprisingly okay with this?
She still didn’t seemhappy, but her signs of obvious stress were quickly subsiding, her growls dropping down to a sad whine. Chloe watched in astonishment as Bella leaned into Ethan’s touch, resting her head against his palm.
“Good girl,” he murmured. “You want to help the nice vet, don’t you?”
Chloe felt herself inexplicably flushing at the words, even though he was obviously just saying whatever was necessary to calm poor Bella down.
Note to self: make sure to call the recruiter back as soon as you’re done, so that you can snap this guy up.
Bella relaxed further under Ethan’s touch – if she were a cat, Chloe thought she’d just about be purring.
“Okay, Bella. Let’s try again, shall we?” she said, reaching forward to gently pry Bella’s jaws open – and Bella let her, obeying the instruction without any sort of hesitation or aggression.
“Good girl,” Chloe murmured, reaching the forceps into her mouth. “Good girl. Almost got it – just a moment more – a-ha! There we go.”
With a quick, skillful motion born of many years of practice, Chloe had the forceps around the ball in no time, before just as swiftly pulling them out of Bella’s mouth, gripping the ball tightly.
Yes! Got it in one!
Not wasting a moment, she put the forceps down on the counter, before quickly turning back to Bella, who was still a puddle of doggie calm as Ethan stroked his hand over her side.
“Good girl,” Chloe said again as she checked Bella’s mouth to ensure that there were no further obstructions or injuries, trying not to let her relief show. It had been a pretty straightforward process in the end, but Bella’s distress and how unexpected everything had been had certainly made it a little more stressful than would have normally been the case.
But with Ethan and his apparently magical ability to calm down stressed dogs, that went completely smoothly! I definitely need to bring him in as a receptionist – he must have some kind of animal handling qualification. I’ve never seen anyone deal so well with a stressed-out dog! I have to thank the recruiter for finding him. Maybe even send her some flowers –
