Our Doggies

Those we care for are usually our brothers and sisters, and we, as animal lovers care for our pets, (children, sometimes) with more love than we might give others. Even though they chew up our favorite shoes, or other things, and have learned where the weak places in the fence might be and have become little escape artists, we still are very attached to them. Kay and I had made plans to vacation with friends at their vacation condo in Myrtle Beach, SC and were to leave on Sunday with plans to return on Thursday. Saturday night when we got home from doing our shopping and running errands to get ready to leave Sunday morning, we discovered our smaller dog Molly was sick and had left a few messes that seemed to have a good amount of blood all over the house. We continued to watch her after cleaning up the bloody messes and that night was watching her in bed when she started to throw up, luckily Kay had a towel around her which we used to catch her accident.

We had noticed that a day or so before this happen we had found that she had several accidents that were loose but didn’t think much of it. We had bought some off brand of dog food about the same time all this happened and believe this to be the cause of her illness. Our older dog Maggie has almost stopped eating herself and has been dotting on Molly; and I am concerned about Maggie’s not taking water as she needs or her change in eating habits. Nothing seems to bother Maggie’s stomach, but we have learned not to give certain foods to Molly as she has a very delicate stomach with reactions that are quickly noticed. I should have learned not to change their food, but the brand of dog food we bought was a cheap buy.

They are both pound puppies and have developed quite a strong bond between them. We took Maggie home first after our Church offered a Blessing of the Animals and is a Boston Terrier mix, while Molly is a Rat Terrier mix and two years old from an Animal Shelter in Florida some 70 miles away. Maggie seems to have assumed the role of mother and of the pair. When we have to take one or the other to the Vet, the other will sit on the back of the couch and watch for the other to return. We just had to have a cist taken off of Maggie’s neck two weeks ago and had to watch Molly carefully examine Maggie’s scar and stitches when she got her home. If Maggie hears Molly cry out she will immediately run to her and examine her and then give us this “don’t mess with her, she is mine to care for”, kind of look.

So we won’t leave town until Molly is eating better and is having regular bowel movements again and feeling better; there is time for other trips later this year. We can’t run away for a few days when our ‘puppies’ are sick; that wouldn’t be right and not fair to them.