Friends

My greymail scooped up the e-mail last week that announced the theme for this week’s header.  I found out what it was on Monday.  “Friends”.  Well was a little late to call for a party and have everyone over for a big photo.  Besides. 

There is not enough space on my header for all our friends, and not FB type friends either (you know, people you barely know or don’t really know, all six hundred of them), but actual real friends.  So yes, Mildred and Daisy are quite correct when they say I am rich.  Friends, many and good, dear, honest friends are top on the list of wealth. 

There are a lot of odd “friends” on the Farm, duck and turkey, cat and dog, rabbit and goat.  Odd pairings and groupings wander every where. 

I was thinking of all of this while working in the green house, fairly settled that at some point in the day I would have to roam around with my camera and catch a shot or two of those odd pairings of friends.

I was in the middle of moving some things around  and prepping a work space when an unfamiliar car came in the driveway.

She had come down to tell us that one of the little black and white dogs had been hit by a utility truck down on the highway.

I called out to Bet and she and I ran down to the end of our driveway to the highway fearing what we would see. 

A neighborhood EMT had stopped and was attempting to pick up our little dog Swift.  She screeched, growled and snapped at him so he backed off as we came around the corner.  She was sitting in the wet ditch and her back leg was sticking oddly behind her as we rounded the corner. 

The woman had witnessed the dog get hit, she said that a utility truck had swerved to miss the dogs.  Dogs?  Yes, two little black and white dogs.  No little brown and white dog with them?  No, just the two. 

Of course not Amber, she is too chicken to go with Martin on one of his adventures.  So Martin and Swifts naughty little adventure had ended up badly for Swift.  And now the other two Ratters were sheepishly down at the house, eagerly they had run in when Bet opened the door.

Here were were now in the ditch, the EMT kindly explaining to Bet that Swift’s leg needed support when she picked her up.  The EMT began to say that it was a Tacoma Utilities truck, but I assured him my dog did not belong on the highway and I didn’t blame the driver.

However, later I did wonder why the person who actually hit the animal wasn’t the one who cared to take time to make sure it was going to be taken care of.

Bet scooped her up, Swift clearly knew she needed her because she barely whimpered as Bet made sure she had a hold of her. Her leg wasn’t an open wound but it was completely broken, as if there wasn’t even a bone there.

Both good Samaritans assured Bet and I that a quick trip to the vet would fix everything.  I thanked them for their kindness and apologized for ruining their day.  – Not a nice thing to have happen right in front of you even if it is a dog you don’t know.

On the long walk back down the hateful driveway I had a rough time thinking that the leg could be attached – the bone fixed – with any amount of reliability for future use and that maybe we would end up with a three legged dog.

At the house I changed as Bet waited on the back step for me holding on to little Swifty so that she wouldn’t move, I dawdled a bit waiting for Dirt to return our phone call. 

The drive to the vet was hard.  Swifty’s sweet little wet face all covered with road grime looking up at me and that leg, just sticking out so ugly like.  I kept looking at her abdomen, it didn’t seem to be injured from the outside and it wasn’t distending out at all like there were internal injuries.  I figured the worse it could be was a three legged dog scenario. 

The vet’s office was great.  And luckily our favorite vet, Dr. Sage, was there.  She is so good with the dogs, and with their owners.  She kept saying stuff about the pelvis possibly being involved because of Swift’s reluctance to use it to stand on the other leg or sit by herself, always just in Bet’s arms. 

I ignored the possibilities that the injury was anything more than the leg.  Even when we got home and Dirt was saying that a little dog and a truck would only meet at large tire height and that it was amazing and unlikely that just the leg was involved.

I thought of my assignment for today.

I was thinking to use the Rat Terriers for a sweet little pose, sitting at the table waiting for their friend to come home.   The vet office was going to call after x-rays were taken and those had to wait until the morphine kicked in.  I was restless.  I asked Dirt to come with me to the hot house.  He said he needed to wait by the phone.  Oh, right. 

I made myself busy in and out the back door.  Finally after a long time with no phone call I went to the hot house. 

And stared at my seedlings.

I realized that I needed to start a fire as it was a bit chilly from the cloudy breezy day. 

That is when Dirt came in, as I was finally getting the fire going and staring at the flames.  He didn’t have good news and he wasn’t able to tell it well.  The poor little thing was all crushed on her back end.  All the hip joint balls were crushed, repair would be impossible.

I wailed.  Dirt left. I wailed some more.  Said “crap” a lot.  Crap for no fence across the driveway to keep the silly little dogs home.  Crap for them wanting to go down there and not stay up here on their eighty acre playground.  Crap for the new housing development across the highway that seems so attractive.  Crap for having things in my life that I get attached to.  Crap.

So this weeks banner is of the little black and white dog that I will most certainly miss for quite sometime.  That’s a surprise, I thought for sure twenty-five years here watching things die would have made me a bit more geared for loss.  Guess not, not in all cases.

I tried to get the other two to still do a little pose for me.  They wouldn’t.  Amber looks sad, but that is just the way her markings are around her eyes. 

I tried to look through all our pictures of Swift thinking I would do a collage.  But I couldn’t bear looking through too many.  I’m glad I found this one in one of the first files that I came across labeled “pets”.

Oh, by the way, since I figured out more about my side board thing-a-ma-jiggies, I’ve gotten rather lazy about telling you to go see the other fellas, no cutting and pasting links etc, (not a fav thing to do of mine), its all there on the side board, mixed in with the current winners and all.  So go see them, this week cuz I told you, and every other week, cuz I mean to tell you and you just should.