Something is seriously wrong with our poor Dobby.

He is usually such a happy, friendly dog. When we come home he wiggles around and smiles and licks excitedly; always lets us hold and snuggle him to no end; jumps at the chance to go outside to “go potty” or chase the birds; curls up between us when it’s time for bed. But ever since Sunday night he has changed.

The best way to describe it is to imagine a dog with 2 distinctly different multiple personalities. One minute he’s the blissful spunk described above, the next minute he’s a cowering, angry, spiteful, mean beast. Off and on since Sunday night, he’ll just switch to these crazy mood in the blink of an eye. We took him to the vet yesterday and as we sat in the exam room with him, we saw the switch happen in a milisecond. He was wagging his tail, up on my chest, licking my face, smiling (as only a dog can) and generally enjoying himself. Then, all of a sudden, he stopped, put his ears back in a threatening non-cute manner, tucked his tail between his back legs and shifted his eyes angrily. He looked like he was just thinking, “I dare you to touch me.” It scared the crap outta us so we let him jump down from my lap and he curled up under the bench and shivered for 20 minutes.

He stayed at the vet’s for a couple of hours last night in order to run a gammet of tests on him: blood work, fecal test, urinealisys, Xrays. All came up NORMAL. No problems. Execpt that he bit the doctor in the process. The vet and all the nurses declared that this was not the loving Dobby dog that they all know and love. I subsequently asked them where my real dog was.

Needless to say, this is heart-wrenching for us. I shed many a tear last night as we described the situation to our parents in the hopes of getting some comfort or advice. The thing that won’t stop ringing in my head is that the vet said he is 99.99999% sure it’s not rabies. But, if it is rabies then we have a serious problem on our hands. I asked, “What other symptoms would indicate that it is rabies?” To which he flatly answered, “He’d be dead in 4 days.”

The vet suggested that maybe he’s just in some kind of pain in his body that he’s not able to localize and tell us about (because he’s actually not human…go figure!). So he sent us home with some anti-inflammatory medication which we are to give him once a day for two weeks. If no improvement after a week, take him back in. If he gets worse, take him back in. If he dies, call the vet so that he can treat himself from the bite. *heavy sigh*

I don’t know what to do. Dobby’s all of a sudden acting like he’s been abused for years but I know for a fact that he hasn’t. All he gets from us is love, food, attention, water, cats to chase, a yard to roll around in at his leisure, a comfy couch and chair and bed to sleep on, bones, treats, balls…and a daily reminder that Dad is the Alpha Dog (from studying the Dog Whisperer, we have learned that dogs need a pack leader so we gently reinforce this knowledge to Dobby regularly).

I suppose all we can do is wait. When he switches from Happy Dobby to DobbyCabra, we are just supposed to ignore him and leave him alone. But it’s hard. Who is this mean dog and where was my Dobby from 10 minutes ago?

This afternoon, after work, I intend to scour the internet for some information on this. I trust our vetrinarian but maybe there’s something out there that he hasn’t thought of. Maybe it’s a brain tumor. Or maybe it’s just arthritis. I don’t know but I desperately want to find out.

I want my sweetie Dobby back. I don’t know what’s happened to him but I miss him.