Thursday, June 26, 2008

Gone to the dogs...

Since Jeremy's been gone, I get to take care of Ryan (his dog, and Tovie's brother) for him. And Lady, the 18-year-old senile cat. But anyway. The original plan was that I'd move into Jeremy's place when he was gone and house-sit for him. Have the whole house to myself... and whatnot. But I couldn't do it. I got there... and sat around for a bit... and it just felt too weird. Weird and uncomfortable. Living in someone else's house is one thing. Living in it with no one else there is entirely another. So I'm still at Angie's.

I'd moved Tovie over to Jeremy's though, because since there aren't people there, I figured that Ryan might need someone to play with. I tied them far enough apart that they couldn't tangle each other up but could still touch each other. The first thing that happened was that Tovie got more wired and hyper and bad-mannered. I'd had him pretty well trained not to jump on people before this, but he seemed to forget that fairly quickly. The second thing that happened was that he quit eating. Tovie's not a fat dog in the first place. In fact, I've worked hard to put a bit of covering over his ribs - feeding him eggs with his food every day and whatnot. He just started burying his food and not touching it.

The last thing that happened scared the crap out of me and persuaded me to bring him back right away. Ryan has a reputation for somehow being able to get off his chain. There are no marks on it, it's not broken, and it almost looks like he's been deliberately unhooked. In fact, just a few days ago I found him so wound around his post that the cable had actual knots in it, like someone had turned the dog loose, tied his cable in knots, and clipped him back on. I don't think it actually happened like that, but that's what it looked like.

Anyway, Jimmy and Marcie (the neighbors) were out looking for a few chickens that had disappeared, and decided to go look at Jeremy's. The chickens wander over there all the time. So when they got there, they found Ryan running around off his lead, and his lead attached to Tovie. Who was choking. I got a frantic phone call and ran over there immediately. The cable - which again, looked like it had just been unhooked - had tied a knot at the front of Tovie's collar, then it went through the clip of Tovie's chain and back out. I can't imagine how in the world either of them managed to do that. It took Jimmy, Marcie and me to get the thing undone, and we thought we were going to have to cut the collar off. Anyway, Tovie was okay, and I moved him back to Angie's straightaway. I don't know how that happened, but it's not going to have a chance to happen again.

Oh, and to cap off the happy ending, Tovie's eating again, and has regained most of his good manners. Ryan hasn't though. But then, he didn't have much to begin with...

The fun continues!
--Anna Grace

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