I've been trying to keep up my long walks and have been successful
for the past three days. Today we saw a doe with her fawn standing still
like statues on the path about 20 yards in front of us. My dogs were
alert but not barking. The fawn was about twenty feet closer to us than
her mother. We kept inching up hoping that they would take off. The fawn
continued to munch on leaves while the mother struggled with bolting vs
staying to protect her child. Finally the fawn turned away and they
both galloped off. The picture is a little blurry because I took it
with my iPhone and then enlarged it we can see the pair.
My
enervated dogs immediately began barking and pulling. Since the pair
stayed on the path (we could see their footprints in the mulch) all the
way until we got off (about 10 minutes of hiking) my dogs refused to
calm down. Getting home I checked everywhere for deer ticks on me... the
dogs have been Frontlined for protection :)
Both dogs are now exhausted and hot. It's 80ยบ and humid outside. A hot May day in Door County.
Recently I had to say goodbye to my oldest dog, Oscar. He was my valentine's baby, born February 14, 2000, so we had just celebrated his 12th birthday. He had been in great health... although he was starting to get a little deaf and his vision wasn’t as good as it had been. But he didn’t seem to have any aches and pains and was his usual affectionate and loving self.
When I went to bed that night, he was restless... couldn’t seem to settle. That had been happening to him more and more anyway, so it didn’t seem unusual. Something awakened me about 12:30. He was still restless and so I opened the door from the bedroom to the rest of house hoping he’d get comfortable on the couch... his favorite perch.
Just after I opened the door, he started to act like he needed to vomit... except nothing came up. Suddenly I was on full alert. BLOAT! I felt his stomach and it was tight like a drum. I lost another Standard Poodle, Clifford, about seven years ago to bloat, so I was familiar with the symptoms. But I was in my condo in Door County ... miles from the closest vet and particularly in the winter, no one would be open at night. I called all the vets in the yellow pages and finally found one that gave me a number for an emergency vet in Green Bay, eighty miles to the south.
I called them, described his symptoms and got directions to their storefront Emergency Vet Clinic about 90 minutes away. Fortunately I had a fairly full tank of gas for my 160 mile round trip because I saw absolutely no open gas stations. I have now learned that I must always keep half a tank of gas in my car in case of emergencies.
(This was the second time I’d had to drive a dog to an emergency vet... although the previous time it was an emergency hospital because Winston, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, had consumed an entire package of Trident gum which is toxic to dogs. I had to drive to Appleton, which was a two+ hour drive and leave him for 24 hours for observations. Fortunately he seemed to have no ill effects.)
With Oscar, the vet confirmed my diagnosis and after a consultation, I elected to have him put to sleep. They had a nice area where I could be with him while he died.
He was such a great dog. Very even tempered and affectionate and we are all missing him. I remember driving to Pennsylvania with my Dad in his RV to pick up Oscar. I'd had my previous puppy flown out from Arizona and the dog had been traumatized by the flight, so I felt it was worth while to make the trip to pick this puppy up. He was always a sweet and kind dog and the trip with my Dad is a special memory.
It's true. Sadly I don’t have a cat, not because I don’t like them, but because several family members are allergic to cats. My last cat died in 1986 at the ripe old age of 17 and I’ve never gotten another.
I do, however, have three dogs
Oscar
The oldest is Oscar, a red/apricot Standard Poodle who will soon be 12. He is very laid back and is quite happy to let the other two bully him. He does however, love to be petted and can be quite a pest to get said petting. Unfortunately Oscar has a wiry texture to his fur/hair and petting him feels like petting a hairbrush. Not so enjoyable.
He used to love to chase frisbees and would jump high in the air to grab them and then return them to my feet. Well.. he still loves doing it but now he injures his shoulders and his hips so the poor boy has been grounded. No more high flying frisbees for him.
Dorcas
Dorcas is my 6 year old ‘alpha female’ bully of a Boston Terrier (or as I say, Boston Terror). She is the ultimate definition of hyper... particularly when someone comes into the house, or into my bedroom, or into our space. Unfortunately I am not consistent enough to have trained this behavior out of her. In addition she is VERY aggressive to other dogs. Taking her for a walk where she might meet other dogs is a challenge and I can NEVER take her to a dog park or to doggie day care.
Dorcas also loves chasing windshield wipers. I can no longer take her in the car with me unless she is in a crate because she will spend the entire trip running from the front to the back of the car in the hopes that she will ‘catch’ that nasty wiper. She yells and screams and cries and digs at the windshield. I have attached a video below of Dorcas chasing the wipers. The first few times it was hilarous. Now, not so much. (Sorry about the video quality. I'll try to do better next time!)
Dorcas will sit on my lap for hours but she is always tense. It’s like she’s this giant spring waiting to be released. So while she is a lap dog, she is not a calm companion.
Dorcas is also a champion tugger. She loves to play tug with her favorite cat toy and would play frisbee forever. She isn’t so great at dropping said frisbee when she returns it so I keep a second in reserve, throw it out and she drops the first.
She bullies my other dogs and will snip at them when she loses her temper. Mellow Oscar stays out of her way and lets her win any confrontation, but my third dog, Mr. Winston (having taking lessons from Dorcas on how to be top dog) will challenge her when she snips at him and all of sudden we have a full blown dogfight in progress.
I can’t play frisbee or throw balls for those two at the same time and if I’m outside playing with one, the other is screaming in the house.
Winston
Winston is the final member of our trio. He is a three year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who is extremely cute and is loved by everyone. Children love him. Adults love him. People who don’t like dogs like him (they don’t love him... like is as far as they can go). He is my calm companion and chief cuddler. Winston loves to chase tennis balls. At the dog park he can outrun almost every breed no matter the size to catch his ball. Everyone is amazed as they watch him go. He’s not a very big dog, but he is fast. Superfast. Lightening fast (well maybe that’s an exaggeration.)
Also, Winston's other mission in life is to keep my deck and yard free from squirrels and chipmunks. This task isn’t so important in Illinois because I don’t feed the birds there. But in Door County, I feed the birds and we have lots of trees and lots of critters (squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons and skunks). Both Dorcas and Winston do not like these creatures at all and as soon as we walk in the door of our cottage in Door County they are on FULL ALERT.
Below, Winston barking at the squirrels.
Then, when I open the door to the deck and the forest outside both Dorcas and Winston burst out like they are shot from the gun. Oscar stays back until the mission of clearing the yard and feeders is accomplished and then he leisurely heads outside. It is dangerous around Dorcas when she is on a mission.
As someone with no life partner at my side who is also extremely introverted, my dogs provide me endless hours of entertainment and companionship... plus very welcome unconditional love and affection and lots of warm laps with a few barks thrown in for good measure.
