March 2014 Articles

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Just Rambling, March 2014

Just Rambling: How was your February? Without asking, I know it was very cold for practically everyone within the United States. Other than the cold weather, my February got off to a good start. Below is a picture of myself & my German Sheppard dog, Abbey, which I inherited from my daughter, Blair, when she moved to Ruston to attend La Tech this past fall. She is only 18 months old and is an extremely high energy dog, but she & I have bonded really well. She looks forward to going with me every morning to feed the show calves & horses. She enjoys aggravating the horses as I turn them out of their stalls. She plays a game of chase with our donkey, “Jenny”. It seems that they both enjoy the game for a while until Jenny decides she has had enough. Next Abbey & I go to the heifer pasture and then to the bull pasture. The bull pasture is her favorite because she gets to bring the bulls to the barn for feeding. They would come on their own, but I let Abbey believe she is bringing them. As they come in the barn, she continually circles them until I tell her what a good job she did & to get in the truck. She enjoys riding in the back of the truck & she also enjoys riding in the passenger seat when we leave the home place to travel to the lower place or to town. German Sheppards need a job & her job is to take care of me & to see that all the cattle & horses behave themselves. As I put out hay, she constantly circles the entire cow herd. She doesn’t bother the cattle as long as they stay in the herd. As I work to unroll the hay, if for some reason I take too long or get busy with another chore in the pasture, she always comes to check on me — sometimes several times. As you can see from my writing, Abbey & I have truly become good buddies. This picture of Abbey & I was taken in early February after I had taken Abbey to the vet for her booster shots. After leaving the vet, I decided to stop by my daughter’s store in Farmerville, “Brittany’s Originals.” As Abbey & I walked in, my daughter, Brittany, informed me not to let Abbey mess up her store. My daughter, Avery, was also there & she is a true animal lover. She was so excited to see Abbey. Even though Brittany had carried Abbey around in my truck & Abbey had visited her at her print shop on our farm, Brittany was still not sure Abbey would behave herself in the store. She quickly saw that Abbey was a true lady that behaved exceptionally well. The only real problem I have with Abbey is she has a tendency to exhibit dog aggression, especially with my daughter, Velvet, & her husband, Johnny’s dogs. I have scolded her about this aggression several times, but she still doesn’t listen. This aggression almost proved fatal for her on February 10th. As my daughter was driving from our house to her house, Abbey was constantly running back & forth in front of her because her dogs were in the truck. I had seen her do this before, but haven't been able to correct her. This time I was coming out of the barn with hay when I saw what she was doing. I was too late — she darted in front of Velvet’s truck and got run over. I came up behind Velvet on my tractor as I saw Abbey lying in the road with blood pouring out of her mouth. Velvet was upset, but Savanah, my granddaughter, was pretty calm. She called her Nana (Donnette), to tell her that we needed help. Donnette immediately brought my truck along with blankets to wrap Abbey in & we rushed her to the vet. On our way to the vet, Abbey was continually whimpering because of the pain & the rough ride. Once we got her to the vet she was given a shot for pain & was examined. She had a fractured left front leg & two fractured ribs, plus she had bitten her tongue on both sides, hence the blood flow. A great diagnosis, considering the way she looked & sounded at first. Dr. Brantley said she needed to stay for three days for continued medication & observation. I hated to leave Abbey, but I knew this was best for her. During that night, I began to feel sick & by morning my world was constantly spinning. I was as wobble legged as a newborn calf. I couldn’t imagine what cold be wrong, but I thought about Abbey & how confused she must have felt after being run over. About noon that day, I began to feel much better, so Donnette drove me to the doctor. They first thought it might be a hormone imbalance due to the surgery I had last fall, but then they decided it was vertigo. I had never had vertigo, but both of my parents had & my dad had suffered from it several times. Due to the inclement weather, I was unable to fill my prescription, but I improved to the point that I was able to travel to Gonzales, LA, on Thursday to watch my granddaughter, Savanah, show in the state livestock show. After returning late Friday night, I was able to go get Abbey at the vet’s office early Saturday morning. When they brought her out of the kennel, she immediately jumped up on me before she thought about how much it would hurt her. She was so ready to come home — as I opened the truck door, up she went to her passenger seat & as I got in all she wanted to do was lick on me. After three blocks, I finally had to stop & tell her to sit back in the passenger seat so I could drive. She was so excited to be going home. Upon arrival home, she had to go into her yard pen so she could continue to heal. No going to feed cattle & horses, no playing with Dana’s big puppy, Charlie, when Dana and Charlie come home. No playing, just healing, for awhile. Later that day, after bringing Abbey home, I began to get sick again. The whole world was spinning again. Back to the doctor, this time a cat scan & blood test, but still diagnosed with vertigo. This time I got my prescription filled & have been on the medicine two weeks. I’m finally feeling much better, but hope I don’t have to deal with vertigo again. I have talked to many people that have had it & all agree that they thought they would die before getting better. As you can see, my February was not only very cold, but very stressful! Abbey & I are both about ready to start feeding cattle & horses together again, plus do some more visiting. Hopefully we both have learned something from each of our experiences and will have many more happy days ahead. Van Bennett