Horse-Dog-Advice Newsletter

Hello good people out there in Internet Land!!! Today we will talk about how things can go wrong no matter who we are and how much we think we know!!! So let's talk about the last week with me here on the farm.

Tuesday: I have always known the danger of leaving a collar on a dog that runs loose on a farm. Or anywhere off anyone's immediate safe property. A dog can get it's collar hung up on fences, under buildings, on tree branches, out in the bush, on junk, just about anywhere. Then the dog doesn't come home and we consider it just gone? Maybe it ran away? Maybe someone stole it? Maybe some awful person shot it? Meanwhile the dog struggles to free itself, perhaps chokes itself or simply goes un-rescued and succumbs slowly through starvation.

But you see my excuse was: Two of my pack of small breed dogs are full identical sisters. Two, sweet girl Shih Tzu's, Bingo and Smudge. Since both have a bad habit of trying my patience by going out onto the road, I placed a bright red collar on Bingo so that I could tell who I was hollering at to "GET HOME" the command to get back onto the property NOW!!!

Bingo had been missing for a couple of hours. I was in a panic. I checked the horse corrals to makes sure she hadn't accidentally been stomped on? I called under the buildings? I walked/ran up one side of the road to the East and back on the other side looking for a victim of a passing vehicle in the ditch? I walked/ran West the same way, checking the ditches? No Bingo!!!

Had someone stolen her??? She would jump in with anyone! It would be dark in another hour or so? I raced into the living room to the phone. I needed help. I would phone close friends to come help scour the country side before darkness set in.

I sank down in the chair, next to the phone. Pausing to calm myself I became aware of a soft wheezing, drawn out gasping noise.............. What dog could be snoring at a time like this................ none could be sleeping as they were in tune with me and knew I was upset............. It hit me like a sledge hammer..................I dropped down flat on the floor and peered under the couch................ BINGO, apparently unconscious!!! Her collar caught in a death, strangle hold on a silly couch spring that had popped out.....................When she heard me calling her name, she must have spun around and around trying to free herself, effectively strangling herself as the collar tightened with each twist and turn of her little body.

It is February here in Northern Canada. We should have snow up to our arm pits. But we had an unusal warm spell and my entire property is literally a sheet of ice. Well horses don't skate...........................

My two ancient old girls, Lady who is 27 years old and Easter who is 24 years old are trying to walk without skates? They cannot make it to the heated watering tank so I am watering them from buckets. Their individual feeding stations for twice daily grain and supplements.......well let's just say, they love their additional feed but literally gave up on Wednesday trying to skate on hooves to get to it.

So I went to a less icy area and lovingly poured piles of grain onto the frozen ground for each of them..............NOW I NEED TO REMEMBER THAT REGARDLESS OF THE FACT MANY OF MY PACK OF LITTLE DOGS ARE OVER WEIGHT (get in trouble from my Vet on their being over weight big time) they must at all times stand directly under the old mares buckets in hopes of a dribble of horse feed hitting the ground as they are apparently starving???

Well..............Those darn dogs dived into the grain/supplement ration, snarling and barking up at the poor old mares faces, who with ears laid back showed their displeasure but no way did they dare lower their heads into the snarling pack of four legged, average 15 pound, small breed wolves!!!

Dropping to my knees, I took the empty bucket in front of the 27 year old mare and began to hastily scoop up the feed to try placing it somewhere else! Would I do this without trusting the old girl? OF COURSE NOT! But at 27, I really think she is totally "Bomb Proof!!!

Well, Lady either fell or tried to stomp a dog and on the ice..............She landed basically on her knees. Except one knee drove me into the ground across my shoulders and............the other knee was about two inches from my now flat to the ground nose..................... As the old girl tried valiantly to rise (arthritis and still basicaly on a sheet of ice) the pressure from her kneeling on me only took seconds before I began to black out from lack of ability to breath...........My silly thoughts were: God, I hope my glasses stay on my nose and she doesn't crunch them...........I must have then lost it because everything went black......................

Darn that ground was cold. I was maybe out of it for only seconds. Obviously Lady made it to her feet. I'm laying there, basically unharmed, the dogs are ignoring my ALMOST DEMISE and lapping up the horse feed in front of me and Lady is now happily helping Easter, the other old girl eat her pile of grain.

You bet I am a bit stiff and sore. After all, I have some age on these old bones. 100% BOMB PROOF............no such thing, accidents happen and don't blame the horse!!!