This year I spent Easter Sunday at my aunt’s house in
Norwalk, about an hour away from my home. Since my cousin Nancy would be there
with her dog Harvey, I opted not to take Olive along. For one it would be too
hectic with two dogs there. For another, Harvey came up to my place last year
for Easter and it seemed as if the two did not get along very well. There was no
real trouble between them, but it was clear that Olive did not relish having
another dog in her space. Nancy and I agreed that we handled the whole situation
wrong: we should have had Harvey and Olive meet first outside in neutral space,
walked them around a bit, let them get to know each other, then bring them into
the house. At some time in the future, perhaps next Easter, we will try that.
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On the Wednesday after Easter I took Olive along to visit my
elderly cousin Dora. Olive had been along to visit Dora once before, and Dora
seemed delighted with Olive. This time Dora’s daughter Patricia stopped by and
met Olive. Olive seemed to take to Patricia right away. Patricia immediately
remarked on what a beautiful dog Olive is. Olive was in doggie heaven with two
new people to fawn over her and make a fuss over her.
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| Olive with Dora and Patricia |
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On Tuesday after Easter I noticed a yellowish discharge from
Olive’s left eye. I called the vet’s office on Wednesday and made an
appointment for Friday. By Friday it seemed that both eyes were affected. The
vet detected an infection, though did not find any damage to Olive’s eyes. I
was given eye drops and told to put one drop in her eyes every eight hours for
ten days.
Olive seems to be very afraid of thunder. At the slightest
rumbling, she will hide under my computer desk, in a corner of the living room,
or sometimes in the bathtub (that last one I don’t understand). As it happened,
a thunderstorm started just as we pulled into the parking area at the vet’s
office. Olive huddled under the dashboard; I had a heck of a time getting her
to come out of the car and into the vet’s office. The vet gave me a brochure
for a product called Sileo, a mild sedative that is designed and FDA approved as
a canine noise aversion treatment. I am holding off for now as it is rarely a
problem. If she gets worse during thunderstorms, however, I may have to
reconsider.
Wouldn’t you know that at 10:00 p.m., the time I had set to
give her eye drops, a thunderstorm started again. Right on cue. Olive hid again
under my computer desk. Unfortunately, there was not enough room for me to hold
her and draw her eyelash up to place the drops. Finally, I had to drag her out
into the open and by a miracle got the eye drops in. The poor dog seemed
terrified and immediately scooted back under the desk. I petted her and tried
to sooth her, then had to leave her there so I could get some sleep. The next morning,
she was in one of her normal sleeping places and perfectly fine. She was much
more cooperative (though not fully) when I gave her the 6:00 a.m. drops.
I am happy to say that there seems to have been improvement
after only one day of the eye drops. There was no yellow discharge this
morning, and Olive seemed livelier than the past few days. Well, there is
normal dog lively as she was the past few days and there is Olive lively.
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A few examples of border collie humor that I collected over the past few weeks.
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| Well, how else are the sheep going to know what to do? |
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| As I have said before, if dogs don't go to heaven, I want to go where my dog is going. |
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| Border collies are smart enough to keep up with the latest technology. |
