Like any good poochie parent, when one of the pups in my care did their business I scooped it up and threw it out. At my local dog park, the garbage is actually outside the gate, so I reached over and knocked it in and sat back down on a bench.
(Side note: Who would have guessed that my moment of public indecency would have happened after my years in the Navy?)
Retracing my steps, I found the point of embarkation. Those little ____ had made a nest on the fence line right in front of the trash can.
And then I thought of my poor puppy. No wonder he had gone after his tale the way he did. And that made the hot spot, and that led to the vet visit, and my Relay with a messed up tail. By the way, his tail is looking better. The scabs are almost off and the hair is growing back (just not that patch by his butt.) Part of me is glad to know for certain that his trip to the vet was in fact caused by ant bites and not some unidentifiable malady. And I'm certainly glad it was at the park and not at my home. But maybe my next empathetic epiphany won't include public embarrassment.
5 comments:
Oh no! I admit it, I'm giggling, but I also feel really bad for both of you! That had to hurt!
Ouch! I used to live in Texas so I am quite familiar with fire ants. I'm in Kansas now and don't miss those little buggers one little bit. We do have problems with chiggers here, though, and this summer was particularly bad. My poor dog Maya was bitten on her feet. Twice it caused issues. She still has a spot of hair missing on one of her paws.
Yikes! What kind of ants would bite and cause harm to you and your dog?
I laughed at having to go into the woods and remove your shirt. So glad another walker didn't happen by at that exact moment. :)
So Relay's tail was bitten by these things? How awful! I was actually talking to a lady at the dog park who told me the Lab that had been staying with her had gone back to live with her daughter (she was just watching her daughter's dog until she got settled) and how the poor thing had been bitten by ants and had sores all over his body and had lost fur. It sounds horrible. I wonder if they were the same kind of ants? Eeek!
I never would have thought of ants as the enemy, but turns out I was wrong. They are vicious! Sounds like Maya and that lab can attest to that.
I suppose the only advantage to having an embarrassing story is being able to share it. Glad I could make some of you smile. Hope your weekends weren't quite as exciting ;-)
Lol! That's so funny! I honestly don't know what I would have done in that situation. I probably would not have been as calm as you appear to have been and there would have been a lot of flailing around and shrieking.
Glad Relay's tail is doing better! ;)
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