Operation nail clipping

You know the saga of us getting Jarrah's nails clipped. Well, last time I was at the vet after 2 1/2 hours I came home with one of Jarrah's nails clipped and bottle of sedatives. (For her, not me.) The vet said to give her one pill and wait three hours then she should be "so out of it she won't care what you do to her".

Jon was pessimistic that the pills would work. Me, the eternal optimistic (most of the time), thought and wanted to believe that it would work just fine. Gone would be the days of having her knocked clear out and undergoing painful surgery just to get her nails clipped.

Today was the day!

I needed new, sharp, strong dog nail clippers.
Check.

I needed to have 10 hours at home to monitor Jarrah after giving her the pills.
Check.

I needed to wait 3 hours after giving her the pill to attempt the nail clipping.
Check.

12:30pm After eating our Father's Day lunch of McDonalds I gave Jarrah a bowl of food with the pill in it. She gobbled it all down, pill and all.

1:30pm Jarrah is very drowsy.

3:00pm Jarrah is drowsy but still coherent. Jon comes out of the bedroom from studying and says that he isn't very hopeful for this operation.

3:30pm Three hours have passed.
Jarrah is awake but very bloodshot eyes. I rub her face and she closes her eyes. She doesn't move when I pull out the nail clippers. This appears to be a success in the making. Jarrah lets me touch her feet without flinching. This is looking very positive! I ask Jon to hold Jarrah and pet her to distract her. Against his better judgement (I can tell from the grin on his face) he agrees. I put the clippers to Jarrah's nail. I start to clip it- folks this was going to happen!- She pulled away. I knew I was not strong enough to clip thru her nail and she was not going to hold still.

Foiled! My plan was a failure... today.

Next step. Give Jarrah a pill and take her to the vet after three hours for THEM to hold her and clip them. Even Jon thinks that approach might work.

For now, my poor dog is drugged and drowsy and looking at me like she's not quite sure what happened but she is dog-tired.