Life with Olive: Springtime for Olive

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.

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.