Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Too much excitement around here, today

Slow work day, and I got home early. I got to spend some time outside with the dogs.

We walked around the neighborhood some, something we don't do often because you never can tell when someone's loose dog or cat will stray under Sam's nose. We stopped to chat with one neighbor out with her Boston, Holly.

Holly's mom met Sam and Oreo long before she adopted Holly, and she knows Sam's not small-dog safe. She's always kept Holly away from my guys, and we wave from opposite sides of the street or opposite banks of the creek. But today was so lovely, and she picked Holly up to keep her out of mischief and we stood and chatted for a bit. Then we backed a bit apart and she put Holly down. But she didn't have the retractable leash locked, and Holly made a beeline for Sam and Jacey.

Jacey was excited. I don't think she would have been any trouble; Holly was running toward her, not away from her, so nothing was going to trigger Jacey's chase instincts. And Sam was fine, too. Not by his own designs, of course, but I had him in a nice headlock and he wasn't fighting me; he was interested, but resigned to not being allowed to get too close. But Holly's mom was frightened, and trying to pull back on the retractable. She leaned back some, lost her footing, and fell backwards in the street. She put out her arm to break her fall...and broke her left wrist.

At first, I just knew she was down on the ground. I was staying back with my dogs (Holly ran back to mom when mom fell). But when I asked if she was all right, Holly's mom said, "I've broken my arm."

I ran home with my dogs to put them away, out of trouble. A neighbor half a block away, saw me running, saw Holly's mom in the road, and came running, dialing 911 as he ran.

I put Sam's muzzle on him, and left him and Jacey in the living room. (They pretty much had the run of the house, but Jacey behaved herself and didn't get into anything she shouldn't have.) I went back down the block.

Chris, the neighbor with the cell phone, was talking to 911. Holly's mom (in true dog owner fashion, we don't know each other's names, just each other's dogs' names), was sitting in the road, feeling sick to her stomach, and in a cold sweat. She sent me to her condo to get her purse (with her cell phone and her medical insurance card), and her keys. I locked up the place for her. When I got back to her, I took Holly from Chris, and Chris helped Holly's mom get a call through to her husband.

The paramedics came. Holly's mom is 60, she's in good health (except, obviously, the arm), and there didn't appear to be other injuries. (She complained of landing hard on her backside, but her legs were working okay.) The medics hauled her off to the hospital, where her husband was to meet her. Chris took Holly home with him. I was prepared to have Holly here, although I had a SEGA meeting tonight and would have had to leave her here while I went out. (I already was thinking it out: I'd have muzzled my two, blocked off the stairs to keep them downstairs, and left Holly safe in Jacey's crate upstairs.) Anyway, Holly at Chris's house is a good solution. (He lives four condos down from Holly's mom.)

I'm home from the SEGA meeting, where I dropped off 18 plastic Easter Eggs for an upcoming greyhound event. (Long story, but I needed to get the eggs out of the house before Sam got hold of them. Again.) I'm off from work tomorrow, but I'll walk down to drop off a get well card for Holly's mother. I'll sign it with my name,

"Sam and Jacey's mom"

Monday, March 19, 2007

Stuff

I wish I could get to my camera to take a picture, but if I move the dogs will wake up.

Jacey is asleep in one of the nest beds on the sofa. Sam is next to her. He was sleeping on a pillow, but apparently he decided he needed more room.

He has pushed the pillow on top of Jacey and he's got his head resting on it. The only part of Jacey that's still visible is her butt.


Sam's in the proverbial dog house. No, not for his sleeping habits. But he's done one wrong thing after another after another for the last few days. The final straw today was when I told him "No!" over something, he backed off, I turned my back for half a second, turned around and caught him going right back in the "No!" direction. So now he's being "tethered." He's on a four-foot leash, and he goes everywhere I go. He can't wander off and get in trouble. He's not liking it, but it's one way of getting his attention. And it certainly limits the mayhem he can initiate...at least, on my day off today.

Edited to add: Sam moved off the pillow, and Jacey has now pushed it back onto Sam...and she's got her head on it. So now it's just Sam's butt that's sticking out.