poor baxy

my poor little puppy has been acting a bit strange since he came home - a wee bit miserable and slightly disgruntled at times would probably be the best way to describe it. he was super happy to see me when i picked him up from the home sitter and couldn't get into the car fast enough but i thought maybe he was missing the little dog that he stayed with, missed the rough playing and companionship. i took him for a walk in the dog park and he had no interest in any of the other dogs so i started thinking maybe he is missing shane or is just a bit put out by all the changes around here lately. then i was having a bit of a play with him this afternoon and discovered that half of one his teeth is broken off! it's a front one, beside the canine and i was hoping that just the tip was broken off but on closer inspection it looks like it's broken a piece off diagonally and there is some pinkness exposed. i can only imagine how tender this tooth must be (although he doesn't mind me opening his mouth to look at it and has been eating fine) and it totally explains why he's been to sleepy/sulky for the past few days. i'll phone the vet first thing in the morning and take him in (i'm a little bit worried about how much it's going to cost to fix but that's all part of pet ownership).

now i'm just trying to figure out the how and when. i have a sinking feeling that it happened while he was with the carer and she just decided not to tell me. i did think things felt a bit weird when i picked him up - bax was so keen to get out of there and she didn't really give me any information about how his stay was or make any mention of him coming to stay in the future. maybe i'm reading too much into it but now i feel like she was nervous... plus baxter kept licking his lips and mouth the whole car ride home which was weird. i thought he was just thirsty and he did stop once he had some water at home. i just keep going over it all in my head, wondering how long the poor little fella has been uncomfortable and i'll be so angry if it happened while we were away and he's had to be in pain for 5 extra days because she didn't want to accept responsibility. it'll be interesting to see if the vet thinks that such a tooth break would bleed (as my internet research suggests, thanks google) because i haven't seen any blood around here or on baxter which would mean that it happened while he was with the dog sitter. i guess there is nothing i can do about it anyway but i'll be making a phone call, that's for sure.