Dog Days

Last week our dogs gave us quite a scare. We had a couple of friends over on a Tuesday to work on a science project and then go swimming. Aimee and her friend went outside in the yard first, and she started screaming, "The dogs are gone." I didn't believe her at first; they haven't gotten out of the yard in over a year, but the latch on the gate wasn't clicked shut and three dogs were gone.

I got my keys and drove up to the park up the street, stopping along the way to ask anyone I saw if they'd seen three Jack Russell Terriers running loose. No one had seen them. I left my cell phone number with the park manager in case they turned up there. I went driving up and down the streets, asking everyone I saw if they had seen the dogs, but no one had seen them. I called Chuck at work. Aimee had already called him and he was leaving work to come help look for them.

I had to go pick up my son from school. On the way there, I was praying fervently, asking God to intervene and bring the dogs safely home. Sure enough, on the way back, my cell phone rang. It was a neighbor from several blocks away. She had gotten my number at the park, because someone I had stopped to ask told her I left my number at the park. She had them in her yard and they were all safe. She had rescued them from running around in the middle of traffic. Thank God for answered prayer!

And speaking of scary and dogs in the same sentence. The daddy Jack Russell, Skip, who is quite mature now at age eight, has had a nasty rash on his leg and it spread to other legs and some other (rather unmentionable) parts. Chuck picked up some advice and medicine for "hot spots" at PetSmart. We'd been treating it with the hydrogen peroxide and "hot spot" spray for a couple of weeks but it wasn't getting any better.

So yesterday Skip took a trip to the vet. Three-hundred dollars later, we learned he had a case of mites, that it wasn't contagious to either other dogs or people, and that it required lots of "stuff" to treat it. He has pills to take twice a day, a syringe of liquid medicine once a day, salve that requires wearing gloves to apply, a cone to keep him from chewing the area and licking the medication off, and medicated shampoo for a twice weekly bath. UGH!