12:23pm
Our Bogey
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Our beloved Alex was dying of cancer, and though I didn't know it then, had only one week left to live. I was driving home from grocery shopping one Sunday, when I spotted a thin dog walking right down the middle of our road. You can usually tell when an animal isn't familiar with an area, and that was true of this dog. I stopped my car, and got out ~ he was wearing a collar, but had no identification tags of any kind. I tried to get him into my car, but he clearly didn't want to get in. I went home, grabbed a leash, and walked back. As I approached the area where I had seen the dog, he came scooting out of someone's back yard, running in a defensive posture. Other dogs were barking at him from the direction he was running from. I called him to me, and snapped the leash on his collar ~ and I led him to my house, putting him into our fenced back yard, and offering him water and food. As I started to pet him, I quickly realized that he was covered head to toe with TICKS. He even had them hanging from his lips, and when I looked in his ears, they were FILLED with ticks. I called my vet's office, and the girl on duty at the time told me to bring him in and she would help me remove the ticks ~ it took us a couple of hours to rid him of the ticks, and he patiently allowed us to do it. Afterwards, I asked her to put Advantage on him, to help control the ticks and to get rid of the fleas that I was sure were also there. I took him home, brought a dog house up on our deck, and told him to make himself at home. This dog, who turned out to be an Australian Shepherd, weighed only 29 pounds (much below the 50 pounds that he should have weighed)and seemed very timid. One week later, Alex's cancer was finally diagnosed (bone cancer that had spread everywhere) and he was put to sleep. Our adored and much-loved dog was dead, but I had this new needy pet to concentrate on, which helped a little. The black stray turned out to have a sweet and playful nature. Two or three weeks after he entered our life "Bogey" was invited into our home. He had already found a place in our hearts.
