This is Gulliver. Gulliver is our 3-year-old long-hair chihuahua and, like a lot of small, over-bred dogs, Gulliver has some health issues. The hole in the top of his skull never closed up when he was a puppy. His tear ducts often get clogged. And he never lost any of his baby teeth, even when his grown-up teeth came in. He's kind of like a shark- he has two complete sets of teeth.
Which isn't as cool as it sounds. No matter how often I brushed Gulliver's teeth his breath was horrific and getting horrific-er all the time. Imagine the worst breath you've ever smelled. Without even knowing how bad that bad breath was, I know for a stone cold fact that Gulliver's was worse. The problem was that plaque and all kinds of ick was getting trapped between his two sets of choppers and rotting.
So today Gulliver went to vet to have his superfluous canines removed and get a though teeth cleaning. He's still a little groggy from the anesthesia but his breath smells like a summer breeze and his teeth are clean enough to eat off.
What, you may be asking yourself, does this have to do with New Year's Resolutions? Glad you asked.
When Gulliver- or one of the sheep or goats- has a problem, I take them to the appropriate professional and I get it taken care of. Gulliver had teeth problems, I take him to the dentist.
I, on the other hand, haven't been to the dentist in three years, not since I lost my dental insurance in my divorce. And for three years I have been putting off going to the dentist because I don't want to want to spend the money. Do you hear me? I didn't want to spend the money ON MY TEETH!
Today, when I was writing a check for $230 for Gulliver's dental visit- which seemed perfectly reasonable, BTW- I realized that I take waaay better care of the animals than I do myself.
What's that about?!?
So I came home and made myself a dentist appointment. And I'm dreading it. I'm gonna have to listen to a lecture about flossing and going to the dentist regularly, and it's going to be expensive, but I'm going to do it.
My New Year's Resolution is to start treating myself at least as well as I treat my flock. There will be many, many smaller sub-resolutions, like finally getting the Diet Pepsi monkey off my back, but the that's the big, over-arching, umbrella resolution. To take better care of me.
