May 20th, 2007
encounter with life
I almost posted these photos a couple of weeks ago right after they were taken. However, before I had a chance to do so, some events began to unfold and I decided to just stow them away for awhile. Now, circumstances have changed and I can write about them and also about some of what’s been going on in our lives over the past couple of weeks.
First, the photos.
A couple of weekends ago, while hiking at the Ferguson Forestry Centre at Kemptville, we met up with a pair of Airedales. They were hilariously funny fellows. We saw them freezing at a Tee-junction in the trail up ahead of us as they saw us come into view (see above).
A few seconds later, they came bounding towards us. However, they came to a halt in front of us as Sabrina went into “protection mode” — stepping ahead of us a little while tensing and puffing herself up, including her tail which she holds like a banner above her back, so that she looks about twice her normal size.
The Airedales were a little nonplussed by her actions and appearance, especially her cold, hard gaze, and both became wussy. In fact, one of the dogs turned its head off to the side and wouldn’t meet Sabrina’s eyes. A few seconds later, the Airedales’ parents came into view and the “kids” were off and running. Sabrina relaxed back into her casual strolling mode and we continued on our way.
I always get a small charge out of seeing her make that quick transition into protection mode as I know she learned that from our previous Rough Collie. Maggie was the kindest and most placid of dogs, but if she felt we were in any danger, she would stand tall and puff her long coat up so that she looked like a magnificent lion of a dog. One day, when Sabrina was still a pup, we had a chance encounter with our neighbour’s rambunctious Yellow Lab, Devon. He raced up, intending to give us one of his exhuberant and rather painful body-checks, but Maggie stepped ahead, going into protection mode. Devon stopped dead in his tracks and hung his head, not wanting to have to face Maggie’s cold stare. Sabrina took it all in and stepped forward to stand beside Maggie, all puffed up and looking twice her puppy size.
The pair of them made a great team until Maggie passed away in October 2003. I have a nice photo of Maggie taken just a couple of days before she passed on. I consider it something of a gift as she had very nearly died a few days before – of something that seemed like a stroke. She had a few more decent days after that, and I took this photo. She didn’t usually like being photographed, but on this rare occasion, she gave me a great look that captured all of that unique intelligence she possessed. She was a wonderful dog and we miss her greatly.
So, on to the events of the past couple of weeks.
The day after the above photos were taken, we realized that Sabrina wasn’t feeling well. She had completely lost her appetite, and when I went to go for a walk around the farm on Sunday afternoon, she went out with me, but then wanted to turn back to the house after just a few minutes of walking. On Monday morning, I took her to our local vet clinic to have her checked out. I won’t go into all that transpired between then and now, but suffice to say that this has been a very stressful couple of weeks. Sabrina spent an entire week on IV at two vet clinics, had xrays and ultrasounds and then emergency surgery and a liver biopsy, and returned home with a long incision with 34 staples in her abdomen. Very fortunately, due to the miracle of modern veterinary medicine, she’s feeling much better now. Her appetite is once again pretty good, and her sense of humor has returned — she began wagging her tail at our usual inside jokes a couple of days ago. As of yesterday, she’s back to playfully yanking at the legs of Don’s jeans as he puts them on in the morning (her favourite trick). She has to take things easy for a few weeks, but she’s already looking out across the trails here at home wanting to go for longer walks. The liver biopsy came back negative for cancer on Friday, so we breathed a collective sigh of relief. It looks like all will be okay.
Through all of the above, the three of us have been quite stressed. For my own part, my heart hasn’t really been in anything here at the farm for the past couple of weeks. Our dogs have always been a very large part of our lives – they’re more than just companions – more like closest friends, blood-brothers, or however you want to try to describe the connection that exists between us.