A bit of a mishap

On Thursday I went up to the Big E (Eastern States Exposition; the equivalent of a state fair for all six New England states) and left Olive at Candlewick for the day.

Around 3:00 there was a text message from the kennel to my phone. Somehow my phone did not ring, so I did not see that message until around 5:00 when, by then, there were two messages on my phone.

It turned out that Olive had a bit of a mishap. In the outdoor play area there were some falling leaves. Both Olive and another dog spotted a leave and both made a leap to catch it. It was a freak accident to be sure, but Olive ended up with a puncture wound on her face, about an inch from her eye. The people at the kennel cleaned it out, but decided it was deep enough to get her to a vet. Olive got one metal staple that has to be removed in two weeks. She also has to take antibiotics for the next ten days. While I am relieved that it could have been much worse, but gave her a lecture to be careful in the future. I also told her not to scratch at the staple lest I have to put a cone on her, something I know she would NOT like at all. She seems to have paid attention; I haven’t seen any sign of her scratching at it yet.

I left the fair shortly after getting the messages and calling the kennel back. My sister had picked her up and brought her home. When I got home she seemed fine, eating all of her supper and being as energetic on her walks as always.

I need to go grocery shopping today and among the items I will have to buy will be some roast beef from the deli. The best way to get her to take pills seems to be to wrap the pill in a slice of roast beef. This morning I tried to hide the pill in a small piece of my breakfast omelet. She separated the pill and spit it out on the floor. I then tried cheese. Same results. Then I remembered a small piece of leftover pork tenderloin in my refrigerator. I poked a small pocket into the meat with a knife and hid the pill there. That worked. Someone suggested using peanut butter, which I may try.

Staple behind her left eye

 Olive’s eye area looks worse than it actually is in that the vet had to shave some fur to put in the staple. I think that she will recover quite well. I am happy to say that she ate all of her breakfast and supper on Friday and was as lively as ever for her walks.

I spoke with the vet on Friday, who told me that Olive was just a sweetheart during the whole ordeal. She cautioned that while it would be OK to leave Olive at daycare during the next two weeks she should not do any rough playing with other dogs. As such, she will not be allowed to play with the other dogs when I bring her in Saturday. She won’t like that. I can and will pay a bit extra for some individual play time with a human and an individual walk. The staple comes out October 4.

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While at the craft area of the fair I spotted a display of Holiday ornaments that included a border collie tree ornament. Last year I bought a small porcelain border collie that was just the right size for my nativity creche. This year I will be adding a border collie to my Holiday tree.

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I thought this cartoon was cute, and would appeal to both wine lovers and border collie (or is it bordeaux collie?)  people.