I've put off doing this post. I had to do one on Mugsey about a year ago, not sure it may be on my other animals blog.
Skeeter made it up to the house on Friday, she had stayed down @ the other house for a couple days. I could hear her in the night moaning and she had quit eating so I decided I was biting the bullet and taking her in to the vet Saturday. She sat up most of the way there like finally I'm getting some attention. She is buried under the Rose of Sharon bush west of the house with a huge rock I'd dug out of the lawn for her gravestone. I will do a longer more detailed post later but this will have to do for now. She may have been 20, we know she was @ least well over 10 years old because she was old when we got her in 1999. She is the first dog we have had to have put to sleep because of old age. She was a tough old dog and I do miss her much more than I thought I would. The vet said her teeth looked like she was a young dog. She had a heart condition of some sort though and was getting congested and I'm sure she was uncomfortable. This video is from earlier in the week on one of her treks from one house to the other.
Happier days last June, Dispatch, Opal my daughters bulldog, Fema my cousins miniature Schnauzer, Mugsey gone 7/30/09, and Skeeter under the chair, gone 7/10/10.
Here are two videos I shot last night of Skeeter, the incredible old terrier dog. Her story is here and here. I thought I ran over her, I did run over something, may have been her tail but I think it was her, she was under my wheel on the car and I felt a little bump, I let the car idle for a minute before I took off, I'm wondering if she was that deaf, she's been weirder than usual since then. I tried to feed her cereal and milk and sausage, I know not the proper food for a sickly dog but @ her age it's got to be easy to eat and good. She still hates me.
You have to remember this dog waits till I get on the riding lawnmower and then runs in front of me about 20 ft like I'm chasing her, or she used to, I doubt if she does that anymore. I swear she does this because we live by the highway and people can say look @ that horrible person chasing that POOR little black dog on the riding lawnmower....
Skeeter is a survivor, Dispatch is the only dog who has lived while we've had Skeeter and we've had 4 other dogs.
I've got a CUTE picture of a bulldog and a baby on animalsthatgivepause.com .
AND there's a story about why I hide things from my husband on Tresa's Blog .
She came back up the driveway yesterday morning then disappeared again, she has another house to go to down the hill of my cousins, all on the same farm.
So my husband saw Skeeter this morning laying BEHIND THE BACK WHEEL OF MY CAR which is what started the whole thing. I went out and she finally came around the corner. I know if I take her to the vet it will be a one way trip, I'm just not positive she's in pain or any more pain than she was in before when she's walking like a troglodyte.
So I'd cooked this HUGE ham, I wasn't sure it would fit in the turkey roaster so I got a granite-ware wash-pan off the display wall in the family room. After I took the ham off the bone I gave the juice and leftover gristle and fat to the cats. I took Skeeter over to the log cabin where the cats live and she ate some ham. Then she gave me another really dirty look and waddled off.....
See the dog in the middle? Not Dispatch the white one or Fema the gray one, the dog who is by the pickup and green chair? That is Skeeter, she used to be my dads dog. My dad has been dead 10 years and Skeeter was old then. She looks sort of like a fake dog mixed with a troglodyte she is so old.
Anyway I'm not sure I ran over her but I thought I might have ran over something earlier today and she took off over the hill (OK she waddled and I tried to feed her chicken and she said bad words to me with dog esp and kept on going) and I can't find her......I was going to have to take her to the vet soon anyway to be put to sleep, she was pitiful she's like 20 years old, but I don't like to think of her dying alone but I can't find her.....we will see in the morning...this is her last known photo. She took like a minute to get up when she was laying down but maybe she didn't hear the car start which means she couldn't hear anything. I feel bad but I took care of this dog for 10 years and nobody else would take her, she bit kids when we first got her.....she really didn't like me, she liked my husband....I still feel bad....
THE NEXT DAY...........
Skeeter came up the driveway this morning, she's been down in the farm buildings somewhere. I haven't seen her eat or drink but she acted interested in food, I patted her down and she didn't seem to be in pain. She's not very perky but she wasn't perky before I thought I ran over her. You have to remember she is 140 in dog years or close to it, she's @ least over 100.
If I don't see her eat or drink by tomorrow I will take her to the vet. She's in her dog house in the shade and has hot dogs, cream, and water nearby..
This isn't absolutely about animals but it does have a bichon, a labrador retriever, a terrier and fish in it.
My oldest grandson bought a small blow up boat. They called me @ work yesterday and told me we were having a "weekend."
This is Marcus 13 getting ready to go fishing this morning. Paris the cat is watching him, Paris was named after Paris Hilton because the cat was so pretty, Paris is a tomcat. Whoops. This is Dispatch 5, thinking he's going fishing. He did go.
This is the gang, their mother my daughter included, Sara is in the lead, she's 7, walking down what used to be a cleared road by the "branch" what we call small creeks here in MO, the pond is 1/4 mile or more away. My dad built the pond before I was born and stocked it with perch and bass, which are still there. We drove the cub cadet down the lane (discovered part of my lawn furniture that had gotten left in the woods while someone was deer hunting?) but the crossing was washed out so we walked part way. This is Skeeter and Mugsey getting cooled off after the long walk. This is a video of Zach 14 in his boat, Marcus fishing, and Mugsey 2 and Skeeter 12-18 (rescue dog she was my dads, he got her in 99 and he passed away in 2001, we've had her ever since, she was old when he got her) getting cooled off and of course the Bichon Dispatch 5. The boat in the water is the bat boat, about a 1950s model with wings, we were going to use it in the pond but it just sat there and sunk. Jacob kept wanting Sara to take off her life jacket so he could "save" Mugsey because Mugsey (the labrador) kept swimming across the pond and Jacob thought he might have to save him?
This road is on the pond bank and we used to be able to drive a car up here or a big pickup. The aluminum boat I really don't know where it came from but the kids say it leaks. I hadn't been to the pond for years. This is a video of my daughter JJ, Sara and Jacob 9 fishing. Dog just wants picked up, he is in NO PAIN. He finally went off with the other dogs and then laid in the water and mud. Not good on white fur.
This is a view across the pond. I caught one and Sara caught her first fish we think! Zach said he caught like 20 after we left, our fishing got interrupted because this big white doughnut kept coming over the fishing grounds (Zach in his boat). When Zach caught a fish he said what do I do? I told him the fish had to come in the boat with him, he managed to get it off the hook, it was hilarious though, he's in a boat in the middle of a pond with a fishing pole and paniced when he caught a fish! We caught and released because no one (me) felt like frying fish. Look closely there is a fish on the end of Sara's line.
This is the bichon after fishing.
This is the bichon frise after we had lunch and I gave him a bath and we brushed him. My SIL brought food so we wouldn't have to cook, good son-in-law. That was our glorious Sunday, nothing special except it was almost a perfect day spent with family which is the most precious thing in the world.
Quote courtesy of Quote Garden. I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better. They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and they do not for all their marvelous instincts appear to know about death. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying. ~George Bird Evans, Troubles with Bird Dogs
