I had planned to give you my oatmeal cookie recipe tonight, but life often changes the best of plans! Today was our dog Annika’s scheduled appointment at the groomer. Fortunately the groomer also does a dental check as part of the visit. A rescue dog, Annika was a year old when we adopted her and will be seven in February. She has beautiful teeth and as part of her daily grooming routine I brush them with a tasty toothpaste specially formulated for dogs. She actually looks forward to her tooth brushing sessions and considers them  to be a treat. This morning her groomer discovered a broken upper back tooth in a hard-to-see place, so we’d been unaware of the problem. Annika has always loved chewing nylabones, and tends to get overly enthusiastic: She holds the bone between her front paws and turns her head sideways to chew. It’s a pretty good bet this is how she broke the tooth. So we picked Annika up from the groomer and drove her straight to our wonderful vet, Dr. Edgar Rodriquez, at Portola Plaza Veterinary Hospital. He saw Annika immediately and extracted the broken tooth. Later in the day we brought our little girl home, still a little sleepy from the anesthesia but doing well. Once home she snuggled on the couch to rest up from this unexpected experience, and after a nice nap she had a light supper and headed back to the couch.

Here she is after her dinner, still looking sleepy eyed, but our little patient is recovering nicely and I’m sure by tomorrow she’ll be almost back to her old self. We have doctor’s orders to keep her quiet for a couple of days, but knowing Annika that may not be so easy.