Goodbye to my sweet border collie |
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Selkie will be coming to live with me soon. |
A retired engineer and his border collie take on fiddle lessons, contra dancing, folk music, and life in general in and around Hartford, CT
Goodbye to my sweet border collie |
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Selkie will be coming to live with me soon. |
It has been a while since my last posting. The real reason
is that Olive has gotten much older and less active so that there is not as
much to write about her.
I hosted Easter Sunday foe my family; this time we had a
total of ten guests plus Olive and myself. That was the biggest Easter
gathering at my house since my parents and uncle died. It was good to have my
cousin Donna’s daughter Lisa here on a visit from England where she is now
living with her husband Chris. My sister’s daughter Katie and her husband Andy
were also here with their daughter Juniper. It was a good day.
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Shortly after Easter Olive seemed to have trouble walking. A
visit to the vet and she was diagnosed as having a case of vertigo! The vet
told me it’s fairly common in older dogs. The vet prescribed an over-the-counter
product for seasickness in humans called by the generic name meclizine, sold
under the brand name Bonine. The vet also saw some signs of a urinary
infection, took a urine test which confirmed that Olive had it, and prescribed
some antibiotics.
After a week the vertigo cleared up, but Olive still seemed
to have trouble walking, walking in an awkward manner often crossing her hind
legs. Another visit to the vet, and we were referred to a veterinary
neurologist. I managed to get an appointment for Olive at a full-service
veterinary hospital about a half hour away, the same hospital where Olive had
her back surgery a few years ago. In fact the neurologist was the same one who
performed Olive’s surgery last time.
The neurologist recommended an MRI, which required me to
leave Olive overnight. The hospital called me the next morning to tell me that
Olive had gone through the MRI just fine. The neurologist herself called me
later in the afternoon.
While the MRI showed a few minor issues, including a couple
of slightly swollen disks (not the one that was corrected last time), there was
nothing seriously amiss. There were no issues with her brain, so at least I
know that she didn’t have a stroke. The staff did not think that Olive was in
any pain other than her arthritis.
It is possible that the combination of vertigo and the
urinary infection set off her sudden difficulty with walking. Some muscle
atrophy was present that has been developing for some time. The recommended
treatment was rest and lots of TLC.
I took Olive home and the poor thing was thoroughly
exhausted. We barely got through the front door and she dropped on the rug and
stayed there for several hours. As recommended by the hospital staff I gave her
some canned dog food instead of the dry kibbles I normally gave her; to my
surprise she gobbled half of it, fell asleep, then woke up a half hour later
and finished almost all of it. Clearly, she had just gone through a brutal 28
hours.
Although her crate (with a comfortable pad to sleep on) is
in my living room, I got her bed from upstairs and brought it down to her
favorite corner of my dining room for her to sleep on. When she finally got up
the strength to move, she plopped onto her bed and stayed there the night. Not
wanting to let her think I was abandoning her; I slept on my living room couch
that night so that she would know I was nearby.
Today she did as well as I would have expected despite some
terrible weather. She ate about half of her breakfast and seemed to be getting
around the house ok. She was able to get out back to do her business and come
back in, though she clearly gets exhausted easily. Twice she had to plop down
and rest before going back into the house.
It’s a matter of waiting and seeing now. My hope is that Olive will be able to move around the house (even if she cannot negotiate the stairs up to the bedroom level), be able to get out back to do her business, and not be in pain, then I am good with it. I don’t want her to suffer.
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Olive resting in her favorite corner of the dining room. |
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On a more positive note, I have long wanted to create a page
in this blog of Olive’s canine friends around my townhouse complex. I don’t
know whether I am spelling all of the names correctly (people tell me their
dog’s names but rarely spell them).
Here are a few of Olive’s friends.
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Apollo |
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Beauty |
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Brady |
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Donner |
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Lexi |
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Remy |
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Winter |
Lenny |
You might remember that in April of last year I planted an
apple tree near my unit. I am happy to say that not only has it been taking
root and seems to be thriving, but it has already been producing apples! I did
not expect to see apples this soon. Only four this year, though it shows that
there is at least one other tree nearby capable of fertilizing mine.
Of the four apples, one was found on the ground near the tree and
looking a bit inedible, so I tossed that one into the woods. Another just
seemed to disappear without a trace. Perhaps a squirrel took it? Or a person?
Today I picked one of the remaining two that looked ripe and had it after
lunch. Delicious! It tasted as good as any Macintosh apple I have ever eaten.
Now, if I planted the seeds from the core and it grew into
another tree, would I have another Macintosh tree? Maybe, but not necessarily.
I have no way of knowing what tree fertilized mine. I could have been a
crabapple tree, which can happen according to what I found on the internet. The
seeds from my apple, then, would have mixed genes.
I did not try growing the seeds this time, but I might try
that in the future.
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Olive seems to like the apple tree. She will often sit or
lie near it when I take her out for play. She seems to want me to sit with her.
So Andrews Sisters, I will offer my apologies:
Don’t sit under the apple tree
With any other dog
but me.
With any other dog but me.
With any other dog but me-
Woof! woof! woof!
Don’t sit under the apple tree
With any other dog but me.
‘Till I come barking home!
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I am very sorry to report that Olive’s sister Leelu has
crossed over the rainbow bridge. I had met her many times and visited the farm
with Olive. Leelu was a fine sheep herding dog and, I understand, functioned as
the pack alpha on the farm.
She and Olive were full sisters, though from different
litters. Leelu will be sorely missed.
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Olive herself is in good health, though clearly showing
signs of age. She turned 13 years old on August 1. She doesn’t have the stamina
and energy she once had; she needs to stop and rest during a walk around the
circle in my complex whereas she used to be ready for a second go around as we
got close to home. As such I have been taking her out my back door for a romp
around the field instead of full walks much of the time. That way she can head
in to the house when she feels tired. I am still taking her around the circle
for early morning walks and for her last walk of the night. She is still very
friendly with other dogs we meet during those walks, but not as anxious to play
as she once was.
It has been a while and I have not kept up Olive’s blog over
the last year. That is mostly because at age 12 now, Olive is not as active and
energetic as she used to be. She has trouble getting into my car, so that I do
not take her anywhere if I can help it except to the kennel for daycare and the
vet. A plastic folding stair that I had hoped would make it easier for her to
get into the car did not quite work out as I had hoped. It is a bit wobbly and
I do not think she really trusts it. I will be going to a few pet stores to see
what is available after the holidays.
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In October I traveled to England to see cousin’s daughter
Lisa graduate with a PhD from Cambridge University. Olive spent that week at
Candlewick kennels, where I know she was well taken care of. When I got home
and picked her up from the kennel her reaction was one of “you’re here? Okay,
let’s go home.” No exuberance at seeing me. It was after we got home that she
stuck to me like glue and wouldn’t let me leave her even to go into the next
room. It was good to be back home with my dog.
Lisa has not only graduated from Cambridge but is not
engaged to an impressive young English man named Chris. I had met him both over
in England on previous trips and here when he came to visit Lisa’s family. This
trip I met his family and was quite favorably impressed. On a previous visit by
Chris to the US he came to my house and met Olive. She seemed to like him and
took to him right away. So Chris has passed the “Olive test”. Olive approves of
him and so do I.
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This year Olive cooperated for her annual portrait in front
of my holiday tree. She doesn’t seem puzzled by the presence of the tree,
perhaps because after nearly nine years she is used to it appearing in
December.
Okay, I posed. Are you happy now?
I had some friends over for a “supper by the tree” a week
ago. Olive had a good time and enjoyed the attention she got. Among the presents I got was a border collie dish towel. Olive was given
some bags of dog treats, which she will enjoy a few at a time over the next few
months. She may be a bit perturbed that she doesn’t get to enjoy HER holiday
presents on her schedule (all at once), but too bad. I’m the boss.
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This season our gift to all of the readers of Olive’s blog
is a Christmas story involving the clay horse named Pokey, who was Gumby’s pal
in those early 60s Claymation films. Everyone remembers Gumby, but this is the
only film I have ever seen with Pokey and not Gumby.
Note the old dial telephone and the old TV set. There is also what seems to be a guest appearance by Davey (of Davey and Goliath, a Sunday morning semi-religious morality series that was also a Clokey production). Enjoy!
Happy holidays to everyone from George and Olive.
Some years ago, there was an ornamental tree on the south
side of my townhouse that I could see out a window. That tree blew over in a
storm some years back; the tree was removed and the stump dug out. A hole was
left in the earth that still existed until this morning.
I thought that the area looked empty and thought that another
tree should go there. As a kid we had an apple tree in our backyard, so I
sentimentally would have liked to see an apple tree in that spot. After a few
years of no action by the Association, I decided to take some action. I spoke
with my next-door neighbors who said they would have no objection to a tree in
that spot. I wrote to the property manager asking for an okay to put an apple
tree there. To my surprise, I got a response back after a few days giving me an
okay to plant one.
On Saturday I went to a nearby garden center. The people
there were very helpful and helped me pick out a Macintosh sapling on their
lot. They also gave me some helpful advice about planting it. I bought the
sapling and a sack of planting soil that they recommended. Somehow, they
managed to fit it into my car and I was off. By coincidence, that was the day
after Arbor Day, the traditional day to plant a tree.
Home from the garden center on a rainy day
Saturday and Sunday were quite rainy, but the forecast was
for dryer weather on Monday. So, Monday had to be the day. I parked the tree in
the plastic pot on my back deck and removed the yarn used to temporarily tie
the branches up to fit the tree into my car.
The rain was heavy on Sunday night, so I waited until the
ground drained and dried a bit. After a breakfast of oatmeal, egg, a bagel, and
a large mug of high-test coffee I was raring to go. First, I had to cut through
the sod.
One foot deep, 28" in diameter.
As the people at the garden center recommended, I dug a hole
one foot deep and 28” in diameter. I placed the tree in the hole and cut away
the plastic bucket with a razor cutting tool. I mixed the sack of planting soil
with an equal amount of native soil and little by little packed it around the cylinder
of soil that was in the bucket, packing it with my hands as tightly as I could
to avoid any air voids.
Finally, I replaced the sod as best I could.
Not so easy to put the sod back
Lastly, I brought Olive out to see the new addition. She did
not seem to have much reaction to the tree; she was more interested in playing Frisbee.
"Well, at least he didn't try to plant a tree in the middle of the living room like he did last December!"
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A few bits of dog humor I collected over the past few months.
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How else would humans know that it's time to exercise? |
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How true. |
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You knew he was a working dog when you married him. |
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More cat humor than dog humor, but I have heard that cats have secret names known only to themselves. |
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I took Olive for her routine physical exam by the veterinarian
in early January. The vet detected a heart murmur. That did not concern me too
much as Smokey, the dog I had as a kid, had a murmur for years and lived to be
almost seventeen. Murmurs are rated on a scale of 1-6; the vet initially gave
Olive’s murmur a 2, which could require medication. To be certain and help get
a more accurate evaluation, the vet did recommend a special type of scan,
called an echo cardiogram, which would be three-dimensional and show more than
a simple x-ray. I agreed and set an appointment for the following Monday.
As instructed, I dropped Olive off at 7:30 a.m., then headed
to a nearby café for coffee and a bagel. From there I poked around a home
improvement store for a while until around 10:30 when I had been told that the
procedure should be finished. Back at the vet’s I used my cell phone to call
and ask about Olive (this vet is still being cautious in the wake of Covid and
not allowing people to accumulate in the waiting room). It turned out that Olive
was just finishing up. I said I would be right in. I should have added that I
was right outside the door, as the receptionist was startled when I walked in.
She apparently thought it would take some ten or fifteen minutes for me to
drive to the office.
In any event, the murmur turned out to be slighter than the vet had feared, level 1. No medication
was required, just “monitor the situation.” That was a relief.
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On Christmas Eve, after my Holiday entry was posted, I had
family at my house for Christmas Eve dinner. My one-year-old grandniece was
there and took delight in seeing Olive catch her ball. My sister, the child’s
grandmother, took a short video.
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Some dog humor I have collected over the past few months.
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Well, even border collies need to relax and socialize. |
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Okay, so she took a shortcut. |
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Well, I can't survive without a border collie. |
When Olive had her surgery in October of 2021, the surgeon
instructed me to keep her in a crate and see that she got plenty of bed rest. I
immediately went out and bought a large wire crate, or kennel, from a pet
supply shop and set it up in my living room in a spot that I knew she liked to
nap in. I was apprehensive that she would not take to being confined; she
surprised me by going right into the crate onto a dog bed I placed there and
laying right down. I made sure to give her lots of TLC and kept her until she
was well enough to roam the house.
Now, more than a year later, she still likes to nap there
and occasionally will even eschew her usual bed upstairs near me to sleep
downstairs in the crate. If Olive likes having the crate, as she seems to, then
I do not want to take it apart and store it in my garage as I had originally
planned. The drawback is that the location of the crate blocks access to my
liquor cabinet and my stereo set. If I want to access either item, I must pull
the crate out of the way then put it back.
The things I do for that dog. She is, however, more than
worth it.
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At fiddle camp last summer an impressive film was shown
that, I am told, was animated entirely by one artist. Call “Crack” (the sound a
tree made when cut down at the beginning of the film) The story is seen from
the point of view of a homemade wooden chair traversing Quebec history from the
1800s until contemporary times through many changes. Although not strictly
speaking a Christmas story, it does depict some holiday celebrations including
Christmas and Easter.
One feature that may need to be clarified: the seemingly non
sequitur appearance of indigenous Americans at various points through the
story. It was explained to the audience that in Quebecoise culture indigenous
Americans signify the arrival of a child, as storks do in American culture.
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Despite having the dog crate in a place that is inconvenient
for me (though not for Olive) I was able to get my Holiday tree up and
decorated. It has never been easy to get her to pose in front of the tree, but
here is what I was able to photograph.
Okay, George, I posed. Now can I have that treat you promised?
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Some dog humor I have collected over the past few months.
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I may have been fortunate that Olive was older than 24 months when i got her. |
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That is something Olive would do. |
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Good advice to stay clear of any potential partner who doesn't like dogs. |
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If a border collie can't keep the sheep together, nothing can! |