Turn Tail And Run

We're up at "the Farm" this week (Slick's Grandmother lives on the family farm way up in Potter County, PA) for Christmas.

Max and I were out hiking in the snow this morning (brisk 17 deg) when we came across a confluence of fresh tracks at the tree-line. Because of the blowing snow, any tracks we found were from today. We studied them intently. The fist-sized tracks were probably bear. The multitude of dog-like tracks were probably the coyote we've been hearing about. Max found this very interesting. He sniffed and sniffed. He dug at a few tracks. And then...

Max head snapped up and looked into the tree-line. He stared intently, sniffed the air, sniffed the tracks and proceeded to drag me down the hill with all his might.

I've never seen this kind of response from him. He's a "charge headlong" kind of dog. It's part of the reason I usually have to leash him while hiking. I once lost him for 30 minutes when he bolted after a deer while hiking in SC. We've been in the woods in question many times. He's flushed grouse & turkeys from the fields. He's chased deer into there so fast that my in-laws' collie had to go find him for me. But, run away? This was a first.

At first, I was going to make him stop. Except, well... His tail was tucked as far as it could go between his legs. His ears were as tight against his head as he could get them. He kept whipping his head around looking into the woods. He kept dragging with all of his might.

I couldn't see anything, but the tracks were there. It was cold. AND, the dog was completely freaked.

So yeah, I decided to trust his instincts on this one. We came down off the hill.

Squirrel Chasing Injury

My dog is limping. Seems he hurt his left-front paw or the dog-equivalent of a wrist. As best I can tell, it happened Saturday when we were cleaning the kitchen floor. The dog saw a squirrel out by the bird feeders, raced to the back door, and lost traction. It definitely hurt because he stopped chasing the squirrel for a moment...but just for a moment.

And then he seemed fine. My in-laws arrived - why else would we be cleaning - with their dog. Max & Stewie played. Everything seemed fine. Sometime between Sunday & Monday we noticed that he was limping a bit. Otherwise, he seemed great. By Tuesday, the limp would come and go. Once he started moving around, it would disappear. If he sat for a while, it came back. Sprain right?

And now, suddenly today, he's really limping. Except of course when there's something to do. Every time Stewie barks at kids, Max runs over to help. Every time Max sees a squirrel in the yard, he runs after it. Then, when it's all over, he's pathetic again. If he couldn't use it at all or if he wouldn't let me touch it, I would have taken him to the vet days ago. Instead, I'm in limbo with it. My gut tells me that all this extra activity is aggravating it. How long do I hold out? If it's "just" a sprain, then dealing with a vet trip will only make it worse. If it's not just a sprain...

For now, I'm making him hang out in the computer room with me and not letting him run around barking at stuff. It sucks for him. It kind of sucks for me.

Stupid squirrels...