Oh my!

     Last night I fought against a head cold from the battleground of my couch. Bugsy, spent half the time on the floor chewing a marrow bone, the other half laying his head on a pillow in my lap. We were in the basement with all the lights turned out and the TV on, so it was hard for me to see. When Bugsy got up to move from my lap I realized there was a large dark, wet spot on the pillow where he had been.
GRRREEAAT,dog puke in my lap. Or so I thought.
     I switched on the light and discovered to my horror that it was blood. Blood covering 1/4 of the pillow case and soaked into the pillow. Blood on Bugsys's face, paws and front legs. Blood drips and spatters on the carpet and on the couch. My first thought was that he had vomited blood. (oh the horror!) I flicked on every light and grabbed towels and a wet wash cloth and began cleaning up Bugsy. My eyes must have been wide in horror because while Bugsy had acted very normal before he looked nervous now. I wiped him up and tried to calm down. I examined his mouth for cuts but he was not cooperating. Then we found a splatter of blood near and in the water bowl. Then the marrow bone, the marrow extracted all but from the very center which was hard to reach. Bugsy, had obsessively shoved his face into the bone to get the marrow until he cut open his mouth and bled all over the house. The bone was bloody. Later we found blood drips on the stairs and in the kitchen. I picked up all the "hobby" bones and threw them out. No more OCD chewing for Bugsy!

I am relieved that it was only a cut to his mouth and nothing worse. Geez! He scared me!

     Did you know that Harry needs stairs to get into my vehicle? He used to jump up into car just fine, but then again, I used to drive a car. Then a van for awhile. Both of those were low to the ground. When I started driving a Ford Escape at first he did just fine. Then one day, he didn't make it. The fall was awful. After that I was watching him closely. After another bad fall I started lifting him into the Escape with him helping by putting his front paws onto the entry way into the backseat, then I would lift his backend. Then my back went out. My mother thoughtfully gave me a set of stairs she had used for kids to get onto the saddle on a horse. Below is a picture of how Harry rides in the Escape these days.

     You can see the blue stairs are smeared with paint drips. I used these stairs to reach high places when we repainted the kitchen and bedroom early this spring. You can also see that Harry is not in a kennel or restrained with a seat-belt. I used to restrain riding dogs with doggy seat-belts but I found them to be flimsy and ultimately unsafe. Not all my dogs ride well in kennels so I have never kenneled them in the car. I only use a kennel in the car when I am transporting a dog I don't know. Harry doesn't spend much time in the car. Bugsy and Comet do, and this 'free in the car' thing is something I am re-considering. If we were in an accident,..what if? what if? Oh, but life is full of what if's. I guess I've been living on the edge. What do you do in the car with your dog?

 Speaking of dogs living on the edge. Check out this video of dogs swimming with sharks!