Snowfall, Sobbing, Sickness And Blood In The Urine...

We 've been having extremely cold temperatures lately, which led to a large dumping of snow last night. I let Wenzel, my Collie of Love, out this morning and she ran off to pee. When she was done, she sat down in the snow and just stayed there.

"Very well," I thought. "If you are going to be a silly dog and sit in the snow, I am going to take a picture of it!"

A little while later she was at our steps, quietly waiting to be let in.

I let her in and then noticed something.

Wenzel wiggle butt was not wagging her tail.

I watched her for awhile. She was definately sick. She was very sick. It had come on suddenly, and I had flashbacks to when my other dog Tuti got sick.

I had decided to "watch" Tuti.

With Wenzel, I picked her up immediately and carried her to the truck, and drove her to my vet.

Who was closed on Mondays.

So I drove into town. The vet there was busy saving a dog's life, and I was asked to come back in the afternoon.

Wenzel was quiet and could tell me nothing. I hoped she had something curable and simple, but the mind, as you know, raced ahead.

The day dragged on, as I waited and watched. Wenzel decided that she was not going to move at all. She was going to lay down, and do nothing, no matter what.

At three thirty, I was bringing Wenzel into the vet and she squatted and peed.

Oh lordy! It was the best thing ever!!

Her pee was bloodied, and it led the vet straight to an infected kidney, with perhaps a bladder infection too. She got a shot of antibiotics and will be on meds for the next month.

Big baby me stayed with her in the Xray room and sobbed like a little girl.

I'm just not cut out for losing things I love.





(The coldness outside has created some interesting ice patterns in our gold fish pond. )