Ava Limping This Morning

Our daily routine started early, very early this morning at 4:00am. Same routine including feeding them breakfast because Cletus was howling for food. The change was, as I let the hounds and Ava back inside from the dark cold backyard she was limping. It was her left front leg, the same one she cut in July. No signs of a cut. She let me examine her paw and there was nothing stuck in the pad of the foot.

Then there would be times during the morning she was not limping and had even jumped on the bed to sleep with Watson. By the afternoon I crated her with the door closed. I found a bottle of Trazodone that the vet had given her after the cut and stitched leg was examined in July, so hopefully that will keep her a little less active. That crated rest should help but if it does not I will make a vet appointment for her.

Cletus is beginning to give me "a run for my money" as they say. I have never seen in all the years of having hounds, one that is so obsessed with food. It has come to the point that at all times I have to make sure that nothing is left on the counters for any amount of time, that is food either that I am getting ready to cook or putting a meal together ... even a sandwich. 

Last night while on the computer I hear him out in the kitchen growling. It was a first for him. I had never heard him growl and was told he was not a fighter, got along with other dogs and was not food possessive. But there wasn't any food out. What was going on ??

I get up to go see what is going on and as I glance at the dog bed in the bedroom, there is a chewed, plastic package next to the bed and at the time I could not figure out what it went to. I proceeded to the kitchen, all clear with no signs of damages or food on the floors. I get to the mudroom and there is the chewed plastic bag that once held dog bone treats. There were two bones left in the bag but I had thrown that bag out with about a 1/4 of them left because they made one of the hounds or dogs sick.

I then knew he had gotten into the trash can that is kept in the mudroom. I had forgot to put it on the step in the garage while he was inside. When he is in the garage eating his kibble twice per day I move that trash can back inside. So he is keeping me alert and on my toes.

That plastic chewed up wrapper was from a 16 oz grass fed NY strip steak I had thrown out because the due date was expired. Luckily he was not sick anytime during the night nor any time today. 

All of us are basically hunkered down inside while it is cold temps outside. There is enough wind all the time that the "feels like" temp is about 10° colder. So there is a lot of sleeping and resting for all of us. I am reading some books and reading about college football and the winter meetings for baseball on the computer. 

Henry does not care how cold or hot it is outside. He never has ... even on days like today where the "feels like" is in the 20s I have to practically beg him to come inside.

Of course with Ava in the crate that concerns Walter as he is always trying to break her out of jail when she is in there. But today he seems to realize that she is in the crate to rest an injury. So he stays near the crate to keep the others away from Ava. Sometimes I hear him barking at the others when they come near the crate. 

When he figured out I was getting ready to leave the house, I needed groceries, he ran and found his bone or his security blanket as I call it and started chewing it very intense. 

I hated seeing the title of Al's blog post last night and that Kelly had passed away. As sadness overwhelmed me I thought that she was finally pain free. She had battled so long with her liver disease, showing courage that I had never seen from anyone I knew before. I hope that Al and their dog Pheebs can get through their period of grieving. 

It was about 24 days ago I got word that my good friend out in Sierra Vista that owns Sun & Spokes Bike Shop had committed suicide at the age of 45 years old. He left behind a successful business and was a big part of the bicycling community in Sierra Vista. He also had a great wife and two beautiful daughters in high school. He was a big dog lover with two Great Danes and loved old restored cars. So we had a lot in common, yet depression is a very ugly thing and I guess he could not fight through this time.

So needless to say, my feeling have gone from the highest of highs with my Indiana football team shocking the world of college football to the lowest of lows of losing two good friends. I know that I am getting at or am at that age where old friends are naturally going to pass away and it is common at my age but since last January all the friends I have lost have not been by natural causes. Now six of them were by circumstances outside the norm. 

Keep Al at the The Bayfield Bunch in your prayers, as this has to be just a devastating time for him. 

It's cold and dark here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana ... did I leave that trash can out of reach of Cletus??? I better go see.