Sunday, November 03, 2019

Grieving Dog Update and more

Just wanted to let you all know what happened, in case you ever run into this same situation.

Here's what my friend posted on FaceBook:

"Bear update- a friend saw
On tv (I think that’s where it came from) that it helps one dog grieve for another if they witness the burial. That wasn’t an option for us but we did have _____'s collar and it had stayed on him until just before we left the vet office that morning. From all these crime shows I watch I know dogs can pick up the smell of death so easily and I thought at the least maybe some illness pheromones? We had to try something because Bear decided to stop eating yesterday morning....
So we get ____’s collar and go outside and let Bear sniff it. His whole body started shaking like you wouldn’t believe! He was barking a weird kind of bark and just shaking like a leaf and I was scared maybe this was a bad idea! But we went over to the hole we’d made and put _____’s collar in a bag, put it in the hole and covered it up. We sat there a couple minutes and said _____’s name and he kinda circled and barked then we went to the shed steps and just loved on him a while. He went to gate wanting to go to the front yard so I took him out there and he only stayed a few minutes, no crying/whining, and then walked himself right back to the backyard. That was it. He hasn’t whined since and he’s eaten his food! Did he somehow understand the ‘burial’ or did he smell something on the collar? Don’t know- I wouldn’t say he’s a happy, happy dog but I don’t think he’s in distress anymore."....

That's amazing, isn't it? I never would have thought of doing that! And Patty, I couldn't find a way to answer your comment, but I'm glad your story had a happy ending, too.

If you've read my blog in the past, you know I'm a Halloween freak. I LOVE the holiday and I love doing different things in my yard every year. Well this Halloween turned out to be a humdinger.  Not only were we expecing thunderstorms, but they included a tornado watch and predicted wind gusts up to 50 mph from 4-9 pm--right smack dab in the middle of Trick or Treating time. So Thursday I took everything down.  It had already started a steady sprinkling, on top of some rain we had earlier in the week.  As I was taking a handful of rebar to the shed, I stepped onto the greenish slippery ramp--and down I went. My foot slid right back down to the ground, and I bounced my face off the handful of rebar.
Bam!  First black eye I've ever had! It did shake me up a little. I had to sit there in the wet grass for a bit before I could get up. I was feeling every bit of my 68 years for the first time ever. Jack got me a couple of extra-strength Tylenol, and I put an ice pack on it for as long as I could stand it. Even the breeze blowing on my face hurt.  By morning, my eye was swollen shut. But everything got put right back out on Friday, which was a gloriously sunny, chilly day. Temps had gone from 70s on Thurs. to 50s on Fri.

Because the high school football game was Friday night, and they are undefeated, our little town decided to have Trick or Treat on Sat.  By Sat. evening it was cold and breezy. The kids were out early, by 5:30, so I had no time to get pictures. All I have is one from Wed. night, when I was checking my lighting:


Most of our visitors were in a hurry to get back home out of the cold--or to move on for more candy!--but I got great feedback from the adults, and some of the kids, too. One little girl even complimented me on my "make-up".  lol

This is how my eye looked yesterday. Great makeup, right?  lol  My face was too sore to put a mask on, so I just wore regular clothes.

Now I get to take it all down again! Every year about this time, I swear I'm done. I'm not going to do a yard haunt any more. And every year, by August (if not sooner) I'm planning what I'm going to do. I've actually started planning my costume for next year.....

Happy November!

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