My weekend was busy, though, with highs and one very scary low. Nothing to do with the pregnancy, but it had to do with my (furry) kids, my dogs. We have a 6-foot fence in our front yard, black metal bars about 4 inches apart, with spikes on top, and a magnet holds the gate shut. My pups have never known that it just takes a shove to open the gate. The dogs, a sweet Queensland Heeler and a Corgi-Chihuahua mix who is all love for humans, have become increasingly more intolerant of any dogs who pass by our house, their territory. This started when the little one came into our life a year ago, and has gotten worse as time has gone on. He's taught my sweet Heeler some very bad habits.
 |
| Terrorists |
On Saturday, after some lunch with some dear friends who were passing through town, I was home with the doors open and the gate shut. The dogs, with their super-hearing, went racing out the front screen door and down the stairs to bark madly at the incoming Spaniel, all normal activity. But then I heard the man yelling, and I went racing to the door, to see that the gate was suddenly ajar -- I realized that my dogs had pushed it open. My dogs were in the street, attacking the Spaniel, and the poor man was doing his best to fend them off. I raced down there, yelling at my dogs, grabbed the little one and tried to get my bigger one, but he was fast and not interested in leaving the Spaniel alone. I kept at it, dropping my little one once, picking him up again, which allowed my Heeler more access to the Spaniel. I finally got hold of my Heeler, got them in the house, and went racing back to the man. His glasses, earphones and other items were scattered about in the street, and he, the dog and I were all shaking. We did a quick check on the dog and he seemed to be OK, as far as we could tell, no blood anywhere. I sat on the curb with the man, gave him my contact info and told him to please call if there was any damage to him or the dog, and that of course we'd pay for any vet or medical bills needed. We all tried to calm down, and I told him that we will do whatever's necessary to ensure his and his dog's safety from now on, since we had no idea my dogs would ever do something like that -- and in fact, my husband installed a latch on our gate that afternoon so that the dogs will never be able to escape. I felt so terrible, but he was sweet and said that the fact that I sat with him and offered to help (and take responsibility) made a big difference. He finally felt well enough to continue the walk, so they moved on.
After he left, I was a shaky mess, my heart was racing and I knew my blood pressure was through the roof. I tried to lie down and relax, but I couldn't. I didn't want to even look at my dogs, I was so disappointed in them, and not sure how we can alter their behavior, aside from doing everything we can to keep passers-by safe. Then I started to wonder if the stress I was feeling might affect the embryo. I Googled it but couldn't find any instances of emotional trauma (maybe that's a little strong) affecting a pregnancy, though I'm sure there have been cases.
It took about 4 hours before I felt better, I had to go to the Apple Store to fix my computer and that change of pace helped. Thankfully, I've had no after-effects other than steady cramping, which I think is just normal uterus-stretching.
We had a much better Sunday; I went to a cheese festival in Marin County and then took the dogs to a beautiful green, grassy, wide-open dog park where they got along fine with every other dog that came their way. I guess it was neutral territory.
No comments:
Post a Comment