A Doggie Dental

Today was a big day! Gus had his teeth cleaned for the first time! He was not alarmed by this idea until he realized that he had to fast from 10pm until his Procedure. Fasting is not in the vocabulary or cognitive understanding of a beagle. The morning was rough, he spent most of it clawing at the dog food closet and racing in circles around the house, pausing only to bark at the kids at the bus stop. Soon he was temporarily distracted with the offer of a Ride in the Car. (Said car being my new car, which has now been properly sullied by Gus.) He had renewed beagle enthusiasm about life [panting at window, racing back and forth on backseat as not to miss something, barking at birds] until we actually arrived at the vet. I could sense the mood shift when he realized where we were. His ears drooped and he dragged his feet on the way in and half-heartedly prodded the bags of expensive dog food for sale in the office with his nose. Then he was weighed and carted to the Dreaded Back Room for his procedure. He normally enters this room for his bi-monthly anal gland excretion, but that's another story entirely.
The best part of the day was when I picked him up at 3, still mostly sedated. Well, actually, he was as drunk as a skunk. He weaved his way to the car and then stood dumbly in the backseat, eyes glazed, mouth slightly agape. I bent his legs for him and seated him properly and he rode home the way I had always dreamed...sitting down and quiet. It was only when I got home that I realized that the contents had shifted during flight as he had tipped over and was drooling on my new door handle. At home things were about the same, he walked to the couch and looked at it, but couldn't figure out how to get up there. I placed him as I had in the car and he stayed there for about two hours, drooling on the towels I had put down.
He's much more awake now, doing well. His teeth are shiny white and his claws are trimmed. I'm sure it's a day he doesn't care to repeat for a while, but once he gets his dog food back in his life, it will all be forgotten.