For the past two weeks my dog, SaTang, has been going through her first estrus. I’ve had several female dogs in the past and, for them, it was only a small matter. Just a few small spots of blood here and there. It never seemed to be a big deal. Not with this pup. Enormous flows of blood threatened to stain all the furniture. A few days into the mess I went to the local pet store and bought her a set of doggie pads. She hated them. She got to where she’d roll over for me like a baby so I could put them on, but she hated them. Once on, she acted as if she was crippled and would stay in the same spot for hours. She would want to play with her ball, but she’d just watch it go by, pretending she was unable to move. When MyeongHee would come home, however, her emotions betrayed her game and she would run to the door to greet her.

They did a good job of keeping the blood from staining things while she had them on. But every night while I was sleeping she would either have slipped out of them or undone the velcro and pulled them off. I’d awaken to what looked like a Quentin Tarantino movie scene; blood everywhere. I covered the sofa in old blankets and have washed them a dozen times. The blankets on my bed didn’t escape the carnage, either. I washed the outside cover of the comforter almost as often.  For a while, it was so bad I thought I was going to have to take her to the vet to have him stitch up that horrid gash she had between her legs.

This weekend, it seems as if the nightmare is over. She’s stopped bleeding.  I can go back to sleeping without worrying about the movie crew coming in the night and remaking my apartment. She’s happy because she can play ball inside again. The neighborhood dogs aren’t so happy, because they’ve stopped howling every time we go outside for a walk. The people of Isla Nublar are safe once again.