Life sometimes leads you down paths that are not too rosy. But it's also been said that 99% of the things you worry about never reach fruition. Take the scare we received over the actions of our senior Shetland Sheepdog, Lyric, experienced over the past two days.
Last night, I decided to have a little snack. As is aways the case, in the immediate vicinity was the Presto Dog pack, consisting of Lyric, Lily and Declan, all Shelties, and our tri-color Collie Douglas. Since we have a non-negotiable "share and share alike" policy in our household, I'm always responsible for providing some of what I eat to the horde. So, you can imagine how surprised I was when I called Lyric:
Lyric the Sheltie
...but she didn't come and join us to share in the festivities.
Now this dog is a genuine, 100% food hound, living and breathing every second of the day for any morsel that might be offered to her. She also neeeds to be fed separately 'cause as soon as she's done eating she'll make a bee-line for another dog's dish and start munching away as if it was hers!
So, I'm making a snack for meself last night, call Lyric who's standing in a small hallway near our back door and she doesn't come...once again, a highly suspect non-activity for this canine. Looking up, I saw that she was standing next to Deckie, our alpha dog. I thought she might be afraid to walk past him so I nudged the little guy aside, called Lyric to follow me but she remained rooted to where she was standing. Perplexed, I then thought she might have the urge to go out & was afraid to move so I picked her up, brought her outside, gently placed her on the ground & asked her to "do it." Lyric then proceeded to lay down on the frozen tundra that was once called our lawn, seemingly content with remaining immobile in the bitter winter wind. Realizing she wasn't in the mood, I picked her back up, brought her inside and told my bride that something was wrong with the dog.
We both agreed that we'd keep an eye on the dog, concerned that there might be something wrong with her. I then went back out to the kitchen area to clean up after the mess both myself & the dogs had made.
During the night, I got up & checked on Lyric a couple of times and saw she had moved around from one location in the room to another. Although not a vet, I determined this was a good sign 'cause she wasn't immobilized as she'd seemingly been earlier that evening. After checking on her one last time I went back to bed a little less uneasy than I had been, somewhat comforted by the fact that she seemed to be coming around. This was further fortified the next moring when we arose before dawn as we usually do during the week.
As the sun prepared to awaken from its slumber and dutifully bathe houses capped with Mother Nature's white gift in a soft luminescence, Lyric was her old self, excitedly barking and herding us around, urging us on to prepare her breakfast. We went through the normal motions of segregating her from the other dogs because she's a food thief as explained previously. So when we went outside for the dogs to relieve themselves, I was somewhat shocked when Lyric once again showed strong signs of averting her bodily instincts. She had walked down one step toward the yard but then stopped, not wanting to proceed any further. I picked her up and once again placed her on the ice and snow-encrusted ground, but she made no effort at doing her business. She did walk this time, but in a long arc around the yard that brought her back onto the deck where she waited at the back door to be let into the house once again. I informed my bride that Lyric was eliciting the same behavior as the night before and she immediately took her out herself, hoping that her influence might yield different results. But, alas, such was not to be. Lyric maintained her steadfast refusal to eliminate. By this time I had to leave for work, wondering what ominous realities the rest of the day might have in store for us.
Holding my breath, around 8:30 a.m. or so I called home & asked my bride Lyric's status; she relayed it remained the same. You can imagine my surprise when only about an hour later she called me back to say that Lyric was O.K.! My bride had figured out that for some reason, Lyric had decided that since it was so cold outside & the ground was so slippery, she was simply gonna hold it in until the Spring! Using a little psychology on the dog, my wife got the idea to make like nothing was wrong, bring all the dogs out and instruct them to go "do it." After a few minutes of indecisiveness, Lyric eventually realized we were't going to feed into her new-found phobia and that it was time to make things happen...and she did.
The saying goes we should take one day at a time, but we sometimes make our lives so much more interesting by worrying and stressing about things we can't possibly control, most of which simply dissipate into non-events in a mere few hours. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned here?
Main Page 