Tough Love

Tough love....I have truly experienced showing tough love for the first time. Look at Mou Mou, he is such a cute boy! He has been a really really good boy since we had him, he behaves well most of the time, healthy, doesn't pee / pooh inside the house unless he can't take it and there is no one there to open the door for him to go out...and he loves us very much...I know that cos he hasn't failed to wag his tail despite the lack of 'Walkies'...

One major problem he has is he growls when something upsets him. For eg, if we play tug a war with his toy while he is biting it without letting go...if i hang on to his front legs and shake them...he is very sensitive with his legs. I have tried to touch them, massage them as per advised to de-sensitised that....but he still growls at times and at times he would turn around attempt to bite...

It all started on that rainy night...Hahaha...not quite rainy. It's been super hot for the past week! It reached 42 degrees on Friday! Anyway, it was after dinner, my whole family was just sitting around and mum was having Mou Mou...She was checking his front legs and all of a sudden, we heard - aiyooo....so painful! Ran over and mum was bitten by Mou Mou on the arm, just above the wrist. There were 3 wounds...2 on top and 1 below....Got mum to wash her arm and apply some Dettol antiseptic. We called around and sent mum to St John Of God Murdoch to check it out.

Before that, in short split seconds, hubby & I punished Mou Mou real bad and put him in the laundry for isolation for the rest of the night...Scolded him really sternly....It was so unexpected that he would bite mum. Mum sayang him so much...We all couldn't believe it & we were all shocked! The doctor had to put a few 'sticky strips' to pull the wounds together. If the wounds were deeper, she would have to go through the needle to sow the flesh back...But thank God it wasn't that bad, but bad enough for mum to be on bandage for the next 5 days. She can't wet that part of the arm and her movement is affected a little with numbness at times.

What do we do?? We haven't given him too much attention for the past few days...Didn't bring him over to my parents' place....BUT, i don't think he remembers what happened really...When we allowed him out of the laundry, he was so happy to see us, wagging his tail...Upon reflection on what happened, i felt torn in between the pain of mum's arm and the pain that Mou Mou had to endure due to the punishment...I truly had an experience how tough love felt like!

I plan to write to Dr Harry, who is a famous vet in Oz and see whether he can enlighten us & solve this problem. I am keen to find a solution as I would like all of us to enjoy Mou Mou instead of being cautious with him.