Scared Heart

I have two dogs again. It happens. I should probably remember that it's a bad idea on days when I'm supposed to be medicating the cats who generally go into hiding when outsiders are here but I've got plenty of time to learn that lesson I wager. A nice benefit for Bobby is that I strong arm Alex into coming to night time off leash with us when Bobby stays with me. Well, it was a nice benefit until last night.

The park manager has a penchant for fencing off areas of grass to try and direct traffic. Innocently playing fetch with Bobby last night Alex threw the ball in the direction of the fence. Bob tore after it at full speed with all 70+ pounds of him in the chase. Half a field away I watched and waited for Bobby to put on the brakes. And waited. And waited. With an almighty crash he took down two whole sections of fence. From the clang of it he must have hit at least one of the iron uprights. He's a tough dog so we didn't think much of it but as he walked back toward Alex without the ball he limped on both right legs, poor guy. I don't even want to think about how hard his bell got rung. People lent us flashlights and three or four of us humans fussed over him and rubbed and inspected his legs and paws. Then we applied the only true first aid - treats. He got them from at least two people, maybe more and we collected his ball and took it slow. A few minutes later I needed to reward Eddie for something so I ripped open the velcro of the treat bag and Bob barrelled over to me full speed with nary a hitch to his giddyup. So I guess he's perfectly fine but damn if my heart didn't stop for a minute there. Big dummy.