Thursday, April 23, 2009

Abby & Tristy




Guess what, today for the second time in all the years Abby has been with Vickie, she got to go somewhere fun. Abby got to leave Canine Country Club and go to a dog park. She was really scared at first. Vickie had to carry her in to the truck and when Vickie started the motor Abby started shaking all over.

See, as Vickie tells it, Abby was found running in traffic on the highway when she was about 8 months old. Somebody called Vickie and told her about this dog running scared and asked if Vickie could help so she went to the place where they had seen her and sure enough, there was this frightened young dog running from one side of the road, through traffic and onto the other side of the road.

Vickie parked her car and another man who had just came along, tried to stop the fast moving cars or at least get them to slow down a bit so they wouldn’t hurt Abby. Vickie then sat on the side of the road with a treat and a rope hidden behind her back and coaxed Abby over to her.

It took about 15 minutes but finally Abby came close enough for Vickie to throw the rope around her and pull her in. Sweet Abby was so scared she pooped all over herself and Vickie. She even tried to scare Vickie by acting vicious and snarling at her and knocking her in the face with her nose but Vickie wouldn’t let go.

Since that day, Abby has gone catatonic every time you try to confine her, leash her, make loud noises, move too quickly, stare her in the eyes or corner her for any reason. It is sad really. I asked her what the problem was but she doesn’t know for sure. She just knows that she gets really really scared.

Vickie has always been worried that if she took Abby somewhere that wasn’t completely fenced in and something scared her, that no one would ever be able to get close to her again.

Roy City has a pretty cool fenced in park for dogs and during the day there are hardly any other dogs there so it was worth a try. Paulette and Murphy joined us and me, Jamie and Murphy ran and played while Abby explored. She was having a great time. One time I looked over and she was just sitting there with her head high, sniffing the air and looking all around. She looked so happy.

I think this means, we will be taking Abby to the Roy park more and more often.


























And of course I found a huge mud puddle in the middle of the park to cool off in. Jamie even joined me in this one.




And here is some good news. Tristy is loosing weight pretty fast. She gets to go walking with me a lot and yesterday she got to swim in the lake. She thought that was wonderful. She is not hiding in the house any more and has come out to join us all the time. She really is bonding fast to Vickie and sometimes I have to remind Vickie that "It is all about me" and that Tristy is just a guest.




But I am happy to see her getting so active and happy.










3 comments:

katie said...

Can't wait for Garrett to come home all muddy like that! But he'll have wandered through the house looking for me first.

The Ryans said...

I think Bert thinks he's at the spa in one of those mud baths :~D

louise curry said...

I love Bert, he reminds me of Mike when he was little...