Improvement & Fear

Let's start with fear.

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend we took Lucy mountain biking to a local park called Philip Arnold Park. The trails aren't very long, but they are technical for me, fun for my husband and a thrill for Lucy. To top it off, it's close to home. It was cold, barely 40 degrees, but it was sunny and almost dry, so the riding was fun. Lucy had a ball and though we only did 2 miles with her, I think it was plenty.

The next day we decided to duplicate the adventure. Back to the park, still cold, still dry, we unloaded ourselves, the bikes and the dog and took off. Instead of going around the perimeter of the park and then diving in to the woods, we started into the woods almost immediately. We found a trail that was new to us and enjoyed speeding along. Lucy, being a dog, didn't have to worry about short-cutting the trail. Another great day for her. Wow! Two days in a row running with my pack! Dog heaven.

You know how you get a gut reaction when least expected? Your going along just fine and then your perspective takes an abrupt left. Your internal antenna picks up an unknown signal when you didn't even know your antenna was up. All of a sudden I was aware of no Lucy. She often is in front of me and I can't see her, but my signal starting rapidly vibrating out of the blue. I called out to my husband to check if she was up ahead with him. Nope. He thought she'd run off the trail into the woods. This is not a great habit of hers, but she always circles back to keep up with us. Not this time. This time she'd vanished.

We called. We whistled. No dog. No noise of her coming through the brush. Nothing. Unfortunately Lucy is starting to go deaf. Her hearing is diminished in one ear and it makes it difficult for her to discern from which direction noise is coming. So our calling may have sounded like it was coming from the left versus the right, or ahead instead of behind. It's confusing for her and being visually separated from us without directional hearing compounds the issue.

My husband took off in one direction and stayed in the woods where we'd last seen her. Thank heavens for cell phones. We called back and forth. "Seen her?" "No." "Okay you take off on this trail, I'll take off on that." He rode back to the car, thinking she might have headed back there. No. Back into the woods we went, he on the inner trails, me on the outer.

And then I saw her. Standing. Panting. Head low. Exhausted. I called out and she spotted me, gave a woof of relief, plodded up to me, tail wagging low, relieved. Whew! What a blessing! What a close call! We must have been searching for over a 1/2 hour. We were both getting frantic. But she's back. We only did about 2.5 miles; who knows how many she ran.

Will she ever take off again? That was my husband's $1,000,000 question. I'd love to say no, but Lucy behaves pretty instinctively. She was hyped from running and sighting a bunny is enough excuse for a chase as she needs. I think we'll need to be much more attentive than we've been in the past.

On a lighter note...let's move on to the 'improvement' part of the title. I did a dog walk with a neighbor and her dog this afternoon. She said she couldn't believe the improvement she saw in Lucy. It's probably been three weeks since she last saw her. This is great news. She said Lucy was rarely dragging her paws. Because I see Lucy daily, I don't notice that she continues to get better, I just notice that she still drags her feet. I guess she's doing it much less than previously. Isn't that a wonderful way to leave this post?

P.S. There is no water at the park. The picture is actually from a trip to the ocean, but it's the only picture I have of Lucy running.

What is it with some owners?

What is it with some dog owners? I've mentioned how concerned I am about any dog attack now that Lucy is on the road to mend (and after we spent an arm and a leg getting her there). Well tonight we had another dog 'episode' on our walk.

Our neighborhood, despite the housing crisis, is seeing some pretty major remodeling. The homes are typical one-story 50s ramblers and many new owners are putting on a second story maximizing a pretty phenomenal view. That means, of course, that the streets are teaming with construction workers. Some of those workers bring their dogs to the site for which I've yet to see a single dog tied up. There's one house that has a loose (but of course!) large boxer cross who is not dog-friendly. In the past, the dog has come out into the street and stalked us keeping close behind, but not pressing the distance.

Tonight he tore out at us. I yelled to the owner, who yelled at his dog. The dog stopped, then charged again. The owner yelled again, the dog paused but continued the charge, the owner yelled again and grabbed him. Keep your frikkin' dog tied up buddy! This is something that absolutely drives me berzerk. Do they think their dog can't be hit be a car? Do they think they can control the dog when they're inside shooting nail guns? Can they hear their dog? I doubt it. I feel like calling animal control. I think I will.

The story of another dog

This post doesn't have anything to do with Lucy, but my brother's dog Arnie. Arnie is an unclipped, miniature schnauzer who's a bit on the round side. Arnie is 6 and light tan in color. He's a smart little guy and friendly. My brother mentioned that a tumor was growing on Arnie's shoulder. In fact, it was growing really rapidly and it had gone from hardly noticeable to big enough to interfere with the movement of his front leg.

He took him to the vet and the vet did a cell biopsy to screen for cancer. It came back negative. The vet did a couple of other tests to check for tick-borne illnesses (Lyme's disease, etc.) and those came back with equally good reports. But the lump kept growing. Now Arnie's eating has slowed down to just about nil and he's lost his enthusiasm. He's gone from strutting his stuff, to limping, and now, to barely walking.

My brother took him to the local veterinary research/teaching hospital. More tests. All negative. The vet said he thought it could be infiltrative lipoma and that surgery usually wasn't successful. My brother is as crazy about his dog as I am about Lucy. The research I've done on the Internet doesn't sound very positive about this condition. It isn't cancerous, yet it grows rapidly insinuating itself—infiltrating—muscle fiber and sometimes even bone. Although I haven't seen this listed as cancer, it certainly sounds cancerous to me in that it is so insidious.

The problem with surgery is because it has infiltrated surrounding tissue, they cannot be assured of getting all of it out. Because the tumor is rapidly growing, it will just reconstitute. If it is caught early enough, and surgery is followed by radiation, there is hope that it can be eradicated...but at what cost (literally and figuratively)? The earliest Arnie could get in for an MRI is next week. If he isn't eating and barely moving, if his bodily functions aren't working, what chance is he going to have?

This is so sad...

Attack Reaction

Lucy was attacked by two loose pit bulls in March. I don't think they created her back problem, but I do think they exacerbated it. They knocked her down and continued to do so, one from the front, one from the back until my brother and I could fight them off. After the attack, Lucy went from occasionally stumbling to barely walking. So naturally, I've been very concerned about loose dogs.

Lucy has 'anger management' issues, as a friend says. I don't deny that and it requires constant monitoring. She does not like loose dogs approaching while she's leashed. Did I mention she had been attacked by two other loose pits a couple months previous to the March attack? Or four different times by the same ill-trained, owner-ignored black lab? Or by another lab, this one brown? Our neighborhood isn't awful, but there are some oblivious owners and we do border a neighborhood where the primary business could be drug trafficking. So it's no wonder she's cautious about rapidly approaching loose dogs.

And it's also no wonder that when another loose pit charged us from behind yesterday morning that my reaction was swift. I carry pepper spray that can be effective, but isn't guaranteed. Yes, I've sprayed my dog and myself, but have always been able to eventually get the other dog off. I sprayed next to the dog's face. Close enough for the dog to smell it, but not directly in its face. A 'test' spray if you will and it worked. The dog stopped and backed off.

I was hesitant to walk that same block this morning, but thought "I will not be afraid." I am not going to curtail our walks because something may happen. However, you better believe I was alert. All went well. Whew...