What A Start To Tuesday

I'm exhausted at 4:37pm CT. Ava wakes me up a little later than normal and as I lean up in bed I can see her cone has come apart someway during the night but is still connected around her neck. It is flopping and dragging the floor. I immediately look at her leg and do not see anything out of the ordinary. Of course I cannot get the cone connected with their plastic strap going through the other side so I decide to feed her breakfast and her meds.

But that is not where the fun begins for Tuesday ... oh no, not even close.

I am making my coffee at 6am, the dogs are outside because they always go outside after they eat. I hear Watson baying ... loudly ... 6am. I rush out telling him to shut up and hoping my neighbors are not woken up by his baying .. although a few weeks ago a roofing crew at 6:15am didn't care who they woke up a couple of houses away. the neighbor said they did not hear Watson this morning.

Watson is baying at a rabbit that is sitting still on the straw where the yard repair is and Tall Fescue grass is starting to poke through the straw. By this time the others are excited and I still can't get Watson away from the rabbit just on the other side of the fence, as he continues constant baying. The rabbit does not move and Watson isn't more than 3' away from him. Now two hounds and two dogs, all different breeds are at the fence staring at the silent rabbit!!

If you remember that other cone was quit flimsy. See that strap that slides in the loop and locks ... might be good in theory but when that straps comes out some way, I don't know how it could because it was harder than hell to get back in there. You can also see the Gorilla Tape I put on the area that had sliced open Monday and that had already come loose over night.

Now from here on all the photos were after we RETURNED from the vet 27 miles away. But you can see she has her "backup" cone on, the one I bought at the vet yesterday just in case. I didn't see anyway that first cone could last 17 days at the rate it was going in just 24 hours. 

So ... I get the strap back on the other cone and it closes the cone back to the original position. I go back to my normal morning routine, but as I stepped out of the shower and put some clothes on ... things are just too quiet. You know that feeling you get when things are too quiet and you have a pack that likes to play, run or wrestle ??? Well it was that quiet and not a hound or a dog in sight.

Well guess what I see as I step out on to the patio ???

Ava is on her back, legs in the air while Watson and Henry are wrestling with her. They all three jump to attention like they were in the military when they hear me yell something that I can't write here. I look at her leg and see blood. So the fun begins. 

It is before the vet opens at 8am. They did tell me yesterday though that if I saw blood to call them. So the big trick is now to separate the three from Ava, so I can take only her in the garage to load her in the car and head for the vet again. 

You have to remember any time that Watson or Henry see a dog leash they think THEY are going for a walk and get excited. Anytime that Walter sees the door from the mudroom to the garage open, HE thinks he is going outside with me to get the mail, or water the grass. So he gets excited. 

Yes it is TOTAL CHAOS !!!

No worries ... you are allowed to laugh ... and if there were anyway for readers to see all of this going on, I think I could make a million bucks on YouTube if I had a video of it. I cannot get them outside, shut the patio door with just Ava because she will not come in by herself. SHE KNOWS something is up. Any time I try to get close to Ava to connect the leash to her collar hidden behind the cone and hair .... Henry barges in between me and her because he is jealous ... then rolls onto his back to get his attention.

As they all come inside I get a dog leash on Ava's collar and now she knows she is going in the car. She likes car rides and is happy, heading for the door. Someway I am able to open the door, while blocking Walter and Henry from getting in the garage ... success!!!! We are now off to the vet.

Long story short ... no appointment needed. The same vet tech that worked with Ava yesterday was out front and immediately took a look at her wound and took off the old cone at my request and put on the new one. Ava just laid on the floor quietly while she was examined.

Of course by the time I get to the vet lobby, that cut which I thought was bleeding blood ... had dried up. It was only draining fluid and there was nothing but good things going on with her cut. I could tell the heavier plastic cone was going to work a lot better. So my morning is turning to be a little better with that news. I did not want that to be blood I saw covering her wound.

She slept the 27 miles it took to get home.

Of course all the hounds and dog were excited to see her when she got home. They inspected the new cone by sticking their noses inside it. I guess I now know from them doing that, the velcro attachments are just as strong as the vet tech said they were. She told me they will not come apart. But I don't think she knows if they are bloodhound and basset hound strong.

I'd love to see more of this ... but she is a puppy and will be 6 months old the 19th of July ... so she is very active. After a day with this cone I can tell it is much more durable. There are times she misjudges the distance walking through doorways or under my desk and bangs the cone into the door jams or legs of the desk.

I still cannot find out how she had a cut of this magnitude, let along a cut like that from inside or outside my house. I have looked everywhere for possibilities. I have checked the crate, under edges of the three kitchen chairs, the fence line, bricks low on the house .... nothing.

Today I was taking no chances when I went to the store to buy dog food. She and I were able to sneak away quietly and beat the other three to the crate with a large Costo dog treat in my hand. Of course when she goes into the crate that just lights Walter up with craziness as he tries to sprint inside. When there is any kind of food involved Henry will aways try to get to it first, in this case the bone in the crate. But I blocked him with my bad leg.  Ha Ha.

As I walked toward the kitchen to get my keys, billfold and phone, Henry .. Walter .. and Watson got the same dog treat. Shaped like a bone but huge. You can get a big box of them at Costco.

She shows you how she drinks cold water with that cone on ... eats her food the same way ... cone completely over the bowl and eats or drinks.

Well to top this day off .... I am trying to finish this blog post. I get up to get myself some water and look for Ava outside to verify she is not sprinting in the yard playing. She is not but.... what do I see.

Her cone to the ground, Watson's and Henry's nose right next to it ... when Watson pulls away with something in his mouth and legs are sticking out ... he stops when I yell at him "Drop It" .... thinking it was a baby bird .... but no ... it's a baby rabbit. It was put safely on the berm while Henry went running back to the corner of the fence to stare at where the rabbit evidently came from.

I'm tired ... it's been a long day in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.