Guard Dog Duties

You know how everything can be quiet and peaceful and then suddenly it's far from it?

I was on the phone to Mother when Dog began to go berserk. She had been in a deep sleep by the bed when suddenly she was three steps down the stairs, hair straight up, big deep "I'm gonna kill you" barks coming from her chest.

Someone was stealing Daughter's car.

Okay, Dog thought someone was stealing Daughter's car. It was really the tow truck coming for the car to haul it to the garage.

Apparently Daughter's car battery froze to death during the minus degree temperature we had. And maybe a gasket of some sort, too.

Now, Dog is getting older. She is headed toward ten and her back legs are miserable with arthritis. Her back leg joints are swollen and stiff, especially when she first stands up after sleeping.

So, when she finds herself about three steps down she suddenly realizes she ain't too steady on her pins.

But being a guard dog, she ain't backing down, even though we are telling her it's okay about the car. (Man, she rides in that car!)  I get beside on her on the steps, and she is casting anxious eyes toward me between threatening barks. She is afraid of the same thing I am - that she is about to go arse over teakettle down the steps, possibly breaking her leg or worse and making a giant hole in the Sheetrock with her 110 lb. body.

Back legs quivering, she is trying to decide if backing up somehow is safer than going forward.

I'm a nervous wreck, and by now Daughter is standing at her bedroom door, casting anxious glances  of her own.

I'm about to do a triage of some kind when Dog's legs finally steady enough that she goes slowly down the rest of the stairs, barking like a maniac, resting on the first landing for a few before tackling the other five or six steps.

Maybe that arthritis medicine we buy for her that costs more than my arthritis medicine does some good after all.

Husband comes back in the house about that time, and after Dog sniffs him, assessing the situation, she calms down.

Now, if I could do the same, we'd all be just dandy.