When I first moved here, my old dog Katie snarfed both her and Oreo's heartworm medicines. I didn't have a vet or the internet, but I called Townline Vet Clinic and Jerry helped me. He called the manufacturer and I think another source and then called to let me know that Katie would be okay.
Oh, now that memory has tripped another. The day I moved to Creston on June 15, 1999. Oh, I was exhausted. I had just spent the previous three days packing my whole house in Beaverdale. Three very long days. Then on moving day I was up at 5 to finish and get ready for the movers, who came at 7am. They made me condense and consolidate until 9am when I went to close on that house. From there I went in my car packed with the most precious of my earthly possessions to close on my new house. That was a story in itself, for another time. Then back to Beaverdale and continuing to pack the truck. We rolled out around 2pm and were in Creston by 4 to begin the reverse process. Of course, it was hot and everyone was cranky. The bright spot was that Jackie Herink was waiting when I drove up to help me get settled. The best thing Jackie did was sit on the back stairway and let Oreo lean her forehead against her thigh. All that commotion was even more exhausting for the Cookie.
The movers left finally and then Jackie left, too. By then it was nearly dark and I was exhausted. I took Katie and Oreo outside to regroup and to explore the deck and see the pool. What I didn't realize at the time was just how bad Oreo's vision was. I still didn't realize that even though she fell into the pool. Splash! I had no idea how deep it was. Fortunately she knew the dog paddle and put it to good use. I kneeled down by the ladder out of the pool and she paddled over. She got her front legs wrapped around one of the ladder uprights. Tightly wrapped. A death grip on it. I still remember how hard it was emotionally and physically to reach in and break her hold so that she could get between the uprights. I got her positioned and then urged her up. After a moment or two of serious prayer by me, she sort of hauled herself up and breached water with a huge effort. She scrambled up onto the deck, stood there for a moment, shook off, and then got that goofy dog look that says, "Well that wasn't so bad; let's do it again."
Unfortunately, she did do it again on the 4th of July and about 3 more times that summer and the next one. The other times weren't so bad for me because I knew the pool and had put steps in instead of the ladder. I felt confident of saving her. But finally Oreo even stopped going on the upper part of the deck -- the part around the pool. There were other examples of vision problems that first summer, such as walking into paint pans and then tracking paint around. Finally I got wise later that summer and took her to ISU where they diagnosed a retinal deterioration, plus some cataracts. They thought she had very, very little vision, if any. But she was such a smart girl with her Border Collie genes and she learned the house and the yard. She rarely ran into anything else; I can think of only two incidences in the 6 or 7 more years she lived. And she still liked to go on adventures -- walking up or down the sidewalk looking for new and old friends. She even went AWOL on her last summer of life. That's yet another story.
One time after Moki was diabetic for years, he snarfed down part of a pan of brownies while we were traveling and had left him in the car while we got a bite to eat. Amy bawled expecting him to go into insulin shock the whole evening. Old iron gut came thru again - we walked him extra to break down the sugar but we were lucky. I always worry when I drop pills. Odie is so tiny she'd get zapped!
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