Dogs, Just Dogs.

[Murph]

 

[sunday]

Hound masters will understand

[Murph]

This is funny:

 

 

[sunday]

Hilarious, especially the last bit from Canada, I think. Very friendly canines in British Columbia, indeed.

 

[Murph]

Well, lookie here a rules lawyer:

 

 

[Murph]

It could happen.

 

[Murph]

For the win!  George, a real hero.

 

[Murph]

Yes, it is at least a felony: (according to both my dogs).

 

[Steven P Allen]

On 1/1/2024 at 9:25 AM, Steven P Allen said:

July 5, 2022, a dog wandered onto our property.  I was grinning on the back porch, saw her crawl out of the field and look at me, and my heart melted.  We did try to see if she had a previous owner we could identify but to no avail.

She is mostly black but heavily gray about the face (and getting grayer) when we took her to the vet the first time for a check-up, the vet agreed she was 14 or so.  She was emaciated and wormy, but we took care of those problems.   Her hips and back legs have been weakened by malnutrition, age, and arthritis.  When I took her out this morning and she tried to poop, she fell--this falling is becoming increasingly common.   She often has trouble moving the stool out because of the muscle atrophy. She gets a Vetprofen every morning to reduce the pain.

But she is the sweetest dog in the world.  She has never barked or whined.  She has yelped twice in pain, once because of of getting herself tangled in a thorn bush on one of her four or five daily patrols.  She walks much of the perimeter of our field at least one of those walks; they all last at least 20 minutes, some as many as 45.  She refuses to cut them any shorter, even in the worst weather.  Her thick coat sheds water like a poncho and allows her to ignore all but the coldest temps.  And she is absolutely devoted to me (though she is quite comfortable with my wife and older son).  She is very apprehensive when I leave the house and delights when I return, occasionally even grunting with pleasure when I come in.  She stays near me almost every minute I am home.

It's not time yet, but her time is coming and I dread it more than losing my job. 

We haven't gone out to get more than a couple dogs in my whole life.  We get drop-offs and cast-offs, and almost all of them are mutts, and not one of them has been a bad dog.  I can't stand to watch the tear-jerker commercials for the ASPCA, etc., because I'd want to rescue them all, but I am comforted by the fact that we rescue all the ones that come our way (we have another, younger, larger rescue right now that also wandered onto our place and wrapper her little fur-ball self around my wife's ankle about ten years ago).

I will take them in as long as we can accommodate them and care for them.

Friday. 12/27, we had to put Bitsy to sleep. 

Her hips had atrophied to the point that she could no long take more than a step or two or stand for more than half a minute.  I had to carry her outside to do her "patrols," and she had numerous accidents in the house.  She drank only once or twice/day, and she stopped eating on Christmas Day.

In the end, she let me carry her to the car and rode into town without any struggle.  She looked up at me once with the same look in her eyes that she had when she first came up out of the field.

I had dug the grave that afternoon, and we buried that night in the field she loved to play in, near--but not too near!--the other dogs lying there.

I miss her more than I can say.  Oh, Bitsy!

 

[sunday]

Condolences, Steve. 😢

[Murph]

Sorry for the loss of your buddy.

[Ol Paint]

Sorry to hear about Bitsy, Steven.  Dogs are such awesome companions.

Doug

[Mr King]

I'm sorry you lost your puppy.