On December 14, 2023, our world got flipped upside down — and I never posted about it because I knew I’d fight the next person who offered some ‘sage advice’ but wasn’t anywhere close to knowing what we were going through. Or, hell, maybe you might’ve, but you aren’t us…so, there’s that, too.

🚫DISCLAIMER🚫 Before you read any further, here are things we still DO NOT need: ‘sage advice’, anything you’ve seen on google, CBD recommendations, training tips, or anything that sounds like you might randomly decide to be an asshole in the comments.✌🏼

Mattie and Kenobi’s first fight was about six months after we brought Mattie home, let’s call it November 2022. It was quick, loud, and Kenobi had the tiniest nic to her ear (which I thought she had caught on the kennel nearby) and…if you know anything about dog ears, you know that teeny tiny nic was actually the worst part of it.

They’d go on to have a few more spats like this before one was a clear escalation point. While we could pinpoint potential things that were setting them off, nothing was incredibly definitive. And 98% of the time, in between these fights, they’d be curled up on the couch together. (Equal parts amazing and frustrating. 😂)

We also couldn’t quite figure out the instigator, but Mattie was clearly the one taking it too far. Having had Kenobi since she was itty bitty and knowing 99% of her history, we assumed Mattie‘s history as a rescue that was likely tossed from a car as a puppy and who missed a lot of the ‘need-to-know’ puppy things in those early, crucial 8-16 weeks of life...was a driving culprit.

Kimbee was never, ever involved.

We, of course, got to work on figuring it out immediately. And by the summer of 2023, they both had full panel bloodwork done to ensure they were healthy. Kenobi had the tiniest bit of a low thyroid (which she clearly gets from her mama 🤣 and she’s been on medicine for since), and Mattie’s neurology consult proved nothing terribly scary — but she was put on seizure medication due to idiopathic head tremor syndrome.

Now, I’ll pause here to mention that Kimbee had two+ completely perfect vet visits during this time as well — but could her cancer have been something they sensed much earlier than any of us stupid humans? Absolutely. Still, there’s no way for us to know that THAT is the definitive ‘cause’ either. And the type of cancer Kimbee has is so fast moving & aggressive — that I highly, highly doubt that this was a factor. Not impossible, but also the timing doesn’t totally match up.

After Mattie and Kenobi started on meds — we had six months of restored normalcy. I wasn’t totally sold on us having figured it out — but I was getting there.

And, then. December 14, 2023.

We were supposed to be heading to our very first Parrothead dinner that night, so I took Mattie for a walk after work to burn some energy, and after we got back home, I brought all 3 girls out to the backyard as I did any time they all got back together again.

Kimbee was pretending to be a goat in the corner of the yard. Kenobi was showing me a stick in the middle of the yard. And Mattie, despite just having gone on a long ass walk, was doing laps around the perimeter of the yard at her notorious Mach 10 speed.

Being quite familiar with this speed of hers and how she’d occasionally cut through the middle of the yard for the optimal runway, my spidey senses started tingling, and just as I was telling her to calm down so we could head inside — she slammed right into Kenobi.

Weight wise, there’s maybe 5 lbs between the two — but stature wise? Mattie is a BULL compared to Kenobi.

They bounced off each other, and for half a second, we all froze. Then time sped up and before I could even scream, “NO!” — Mattie lunged for Kenobi and latched on to her shoulder.

As I was trying to get them separated (while also keeping the now incredibly curious Kimbee clear of them melee 🙄), Sean heard the commotion, left a meeting he was in, and came running out to help.

We tried everything we learned and knew how to do in order to separate them — but nothing worked. There was really no separating them. So (don’t try this at home, kids) — Sean picked up BOTH girls while they were still throwing fists, walked across the yard as a trio, and tossed them into the pool. (The tossing fighting dogs into water thing…I do kinda recommend. Hindsight being what it is, I also wish I would’ve remembered a hose we had on the other side of the fence. And we are forever thankful that Sean didn’t get seriously hurt as well.)

They finally separated, and while Sean went for Mattie, I went for Kenobi — who I could see was struggling to swim and was bleeding from her shoulder and chest. I got her out of the water, took my Paul McCartney hoodie off, threw it over the wounds, and applied pressure. (Shout out to my lifeguard training) While I held her in place and caught my breath, Sean checked over Mattie to see if she was hurt (she wasn’t) and Kimbee (just to be sure).

While I picked Kenobi up and headed for the car, Sean got the other two settled inside (Mattie in her crate) and we headed off to the ER where they met us outside to access Kenobi’s shoulder. She’d wind up needing a surgery shortly after to clean out the wound, and have drains put in for 6 days. (If you know anything about dogs and drains…you know how absolutely miserable this was.)

But we were incredibly happy to bring an extremely medicated Kenobi home just a couple hours later where she slept between us on the bed — on a puppy mattress we made into a makeshift stretcher — for the next 8 weeks.

This recovery was…brutal.

For the first week, Kenobi couldn’t be left alone — at all. Somewhat luckily, she was so medicated at this time that I basically just worked from our bed with her at my side, while Sean managed Kimbee and Mattie, and we’d rotate as needed for eating / showering / taking Kenobi out front to potty.

After Kenobi’s drains came out, we then had another week or two where she basically had an open wound we had to treat and hope would close up so she wouldn’t need another surgery — luckily, the wound cooperated and she did NOT need a follow-up surgery. She does, however, have nerve damage in her right shoulder, which is mostly cosmetic (yet another thing we lucked out on despite it all — because the other type of nerve damage would’ve likely resulted in an amputation of that leg.)

A few weeks later, Mattie also started going after Kimbee. By this time, Kenobi was healed enough to allow Kimbee and Kenobi to be together again — while we sorted out what was going on with Mattie.

Right after the fight, we scheduled an appointment for Mattie with Dr. Honeckman, an amazing vet behaviorist we’re lucky to have somewhat nearby. Mattie was seen just a few weeks later in January 2024 where she was diagnosed with fear aggression and anxiety. Kenobi would follow with an appointment in February which led to her diagnosis of sound anxiety and ADHD (yet again, something she gets from her mama 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣).

Both were put on two new medications each (If you’re playing the at home version of this game — yes, all 3 dogs are now on muuuuultiple meds as of 2024.) and started on a training program.

Let me pause here and say that if you are going through something similar with your pups or find yourself in this situation in the future — PLEASE find yourself a legitimate veterinarian behaviorist. They are hard to find and hard to get appointments with — BUT, so incredibly worth it. They specialize exclusively in animal behaviors and can also help lead you to trainers who specialize in behavior as well, which is something a lot of trainers SAY they specialize in but….y’know how that goes. You can say just about anything on the internet these days. So, do your vetting. (Pun intended)

NOW. I will say, even without posting this for the peanut gallery to chime in on, we still had our fair share of people asking if we were ‘going to get rid of’ one of them (or telling us that we should). I’ve also heard or seen just about every piece of shit advice, and scrolled past plenty of unhelpful “well that’s what you get for having all females” comments out there in threads galore. People have asked if we’re mad at Mattie — and the answer always flies fast: “I’m furious at the MANY humans that FAILED HER — but I’ve never ever been mad at HER.”

And, listen, this was an absolutely a difficult, heart wrenching conversation we had to have - multiple times. But no matter what the keyboard warriors on the internet or voices of people who don’t totally know us, these girls, or our situation said — it never felt right for us.

For Kenobi, we are the only family she has ever-ever known. She was never-ever going anywhere.

For Mattie, she has been through A LOT in barely 3 years of life…especially her first 6 months, which had her in at least 6-7 different ‘homes’ or ‘living’ situations — only two of which were truly good homes, of which we were and are the longest home she’s had. If we had, at any moment, thought rehoming would’ve been better for any of them (or us! Thaaaaat’s a part a lot of stupid humans don’t factor in) — we were open to it. As heartbreaking as that would’ve been.

We live kinda by two rules here in the Shimoodsky Universe — “leave things better than you found them” and “always do right by the dogs”…and it hasn’t failed us yet. So, every single day…we got up and chose to see where that day would take us…and, now…here we are.

A full year later.

And we’re all still here. 🥹

It’s still not easy, but it is getting EASIER day by day.

There’s a gate that keeps Kimbee and Kenobi mostly with me through the work day, and Mattie mostly with Sean. The girls can always see each other. And we fenced off a “smaller yard” out back so all 3 can be outside safely together. We’re lucky that we have a house that’s been “easy” to modify. We’ve worked a lot on training, and Mattie — continuing on her adoration of any weird thing most dogs hate — loves her muzzle. (So, if/when you see photos of her in a muzzle — please don’t comment that it’s ‘sad’ — it’s actually a REALLY helpful tool for us and her.)

AND we’ve had some other big milestones this year, too.

✨Mattie and Kenobi (while both muzzled) had their most recent appointment with Dr. Honeckman TOGETHER. Meaning, they had to ride in the car together for about an hour, one way — and they curled up next to each other and slept the whole way out and back. They also enjoy walks together, and have even had some yard time together (with Mattie muzzled).

✨Lately, the gate has a new position, where all 5 of us can sit on the couch together to watch TV at night — while Mattie is leashed and has to have pawrent supervision at all times — she still gets to connect with Kimbee and Kenobi and it just feels more ‘normal’ to us humans vs. having a gate separate everyone.

✨The girls have had a few photo ops in the past few months where they’ve all been together in a photo (look back on their Instagram and you’ll see the last photo/video of them all truly together was 12/13/23) — although this initially crushed me — it also did force me to be more creative this year. 😂

✨After having nearly every single routine we had upended, we’ve found (and are finding) new ones that work even better. We all get up together in the morning, after the girls have breakfast, we reset a bit more — and at night Mattie is now learning how to ‘go to bed’ (from her place in the living room to her ‘bed room’ in our room) without stopping along the way.

Kenobi is still cautious of where Mattie is, especially at bed time — where she’ll wait in the living room for one of us to tell her that it’s “okay” to go to bed — which means Mattie is in her bed room.

✨Just a few weeks ago, we caught Mattie growling at Kimbee over a bone (through the gate) — why was this progress? She did a NORMAL, well-timed, properly-executed growl to let Kimbee know, “Hey, that’s mine.” Mattie didn’t over-react! We were even laughing about it because had it been a growl between Kenobi and Kimber — it would’ve been such a ‘normal’ dog response that we wouldn’t have even been concerned about it.

PS: All of the girls are off of e-collars now, so now that any that you see are photos taken pre-January 2024. I still think these are a great tools (when you’re trained properly in them, which we are) — but for this particular situation, they’re not helpful. And it’s helped us ‘reset’.

So, it’s been a long year — made even longer by Kimbee’s surgery and diagnosis. But I’m really, really proud of how far we’ve all come — and I’m feeling pretty lucky too because I know this isn’t how most of these situations turn out.

I’ll also say…that’s a testament to these 3 girls, the support system we have in place (family, friends, vets, and trainers) — but most of all? It’s me and Sean. This takes a lot of freaking hard work…but WE are making it all happen, and thats a big fucking deal because most humans would’ve peaced out on day one.

There’s still A LOT of work to be done. But we couldn’t have made it this far without our family and friends (you know who you are) who sent gift cards and coffee during the toughest days, cheered us along when we weren’t quite sure, and celebrated every ‘little’ milestone along the way.

A lot can happen in 365 days…and we’re proof of that. 🫶🏼

If you’d like to spread a little ✨PAWSITIVITY✨ get your @PawsitivePointer gear here.

All proceeds go to Kimbee’s continued treatment and care as she fights Hemangiosarcoma cancer.

Kimbee’s last day of chemo is January 3, 2025 — wear your gear and tag @PawsitivePointers to help us celebrate.