Friday, May 20, 2005
*** The Canine Report ***
It was a tough couple of days there for Hodie. At first I really was concerned that she was at least blinded and perhaps even poisoned systemically. The day after I found her hurting and with eyes swollen shut she was still listless, would not eat, and still could not open her eyes. By late that afternoon, when I’d had time to go to town for some anti-inflammatory eye drops with antibiotics, she was able to open her eyes to a slit, at least. I don’t know how much her improvement has been due to the drops or just the passage of time, but she is just about back to normal now. She still has a dark crusty ring around her eyes, but she can open them, the swelling is down, and she clearly sees OK. Whew!
The drops must help, though. She doesn’t like getting drops in her eyes of course, but really she doesn’t fight me on it like she did at first when I was trying to use water to rinse her eyes.
The neighbors are pretty much in agreement that Yep, it had to be a snake. Black Mamba, they say. The weeds around my house should be chopped back to avoid hiding snakes, they say. So that explains why all Africa houses are in the middle of hard-packed dirt from which all vestiges of green growth are removed. The absence of green is also supposed to help in keeping mosquitoes away from the houses. Sounds reasonable enough.
I gave away two puppies today, and got a letter from the White Fathers who have a Center near me that they would like to take two pups themselves, a male and a female. I visited the White Fathers just last week, and in our conversation learned that Hodie’s Mother had been their dog. So giving them two grandchildren would kind-of be completing the cycle.
The first pup went to another Nsumba teacher, a sweet woman who has been very helpful to me and would like a dog in order to feel safer in her place. She will clearly take very good care of the little guy. The second went to my neighbor who has a lot of small children. I had to teach the children how to pet and not poke, but they seemed to be getting it. However this evening they brought the little guy back – he was crying and making so much noise they couldn’t stand it.
It is kind of tough to give these puppies away, no matter how necessary that might be. They are just at that cutest stage – the one where pet stores love to showcase them. Not quite walking confidently yet, but anxious to explore everything. Tails wagging to extreme. Alert, playful. One of them has dark blue eyes. Striking.
It was a tough couple of days there for Hodie. At first I really was concerned that she was at least blinded and perhaps even poisoned systemically. The day after I found her hurting and with eyes swollen shut she was still listless, would not eat, and still could not open her eyes. By late that afternoon, when I’d had time to go to town for some anti-inflammatory eye drops with antibiotics, she was able to open her eyes to a slit, at least. I don’t know how much her improvement has been due to the drops or just the passage of time, but she is just about back to normal now. She still has a dark crusty ring around her eyes, but she can open them, the swelling is down, and she clearly sees OK. Whew!
The drops must help, though. She doesn’t like getting drops in her eyes of course, but really she doesn’t fight me on it like she did at first when I was trying to use water to rinse her eyes.
The neighbors are pretty much in agreement that Yep, it had to be a snake. Black Mamba, they say. The weeds around my house should be chopped back to avoid hiding snakes, they say. So that explains why all Africa houses are in the middle of hard-packed dirt from which all vestiges of green growth are removed. The absence of green is also supposed to help in keeping mosquitoes away from the houses. Sounds reasonable enough.
I gave away two puppies today, and got a letter from the White Fathers who have a Center near me that they would like to take two pups themselves, a male and a female. I visited the White Fathers just last week, and in our conversation learned that Hodie’s Mother had been their dog. So giving them two grandchildren would kind-of be completing the cycle.
The first pup went to another Nsumba teacher, a sweet woman who has been very helpful to me and would like a dog in order to feel safer in her place. She will clearly take very good care of the little guy. The second went to my neighbor who has a lot of small children. I had to teach the children how to pet and not poke, but they seemed to be getting it. However this evening they brought the little guy back – he was crying and making so much noise they couldn’t stand it.
It is kind of tough to give these puppies away, no matter how necessary that might be. They are just at that cutest stage – the one where pet stores love to showcase them. Not quite walking confidently yet, but anxious to explore everything. Tails wagging to extreme. Alert, playful. One of them has dark blue eyes. Striking.
