Brady gave us a major scare yesterday. I know that he's unsteady on his feet, and has a hard time "taking care of business" outside on his own. So I walked him on the leash several times throughout the day, being careful to not hurry him or do anything that would make him fall down.
But then, when it was time for us to watch something together as a family in the evening, I left him out in the yard for like an hour.
I now know that, apparently, Brady cannot be left unsupervised for that long. because when I went to let him in, I found him lying on the ground, with his front leg stuck in the gate (in the area I've got circled, you can see a bit of his fur there.)
The ground was wet and covered with mucky leaves. Apparently Brady was lying down, tried to get up, and his leg went through an opening in the fence. He struggled to get it out, but couldn't. He obviously thrashed on the ground a bit trying to free himself, because when I went outside, what I found was a very wet, dirty, bedraggled collie.
I had to carry him into the house, and was really concerned that the leg might be broken. We laid him on the kitchen floor and Demetrius brought me some soapy water so that I could start to clean him off.
After working at it for a while, and at least getting some of the wet leaves out of his fur, I decided that this was going to take all night unless I got him into the bathtub. I used the sprayer to rinse out a huge amount of muck from his fur.
By the way, Brady freaking hates the bathtub. So, it was at this point that I learned, yes, actually he could stand up--and he wanted out of there NOW.
So I obliged, and cleaned him up just a bit more using some "waterless shampoo and conditioner".
He's doing pretty well today, thank goodness.
But then, when it was time for us to watch something together as a family in the evening, I left him out in the yard for like an hour.
I now know that, apparently, Brady cannot be left unsupervised for that long. because when I went to let him in, I found him lying on the ground, with his front leg stuck in the gate (in the area I've got circled, you can see a bit of his fur there.)
The ground was wet and covered with mucky leaves. Apparently Brady was lying down, tried to get up, and his leg went through an opening in the fence. He struggled to get it out, but couldn't. He obviously thrashed on the ground a bit trying to free himself, because when I went outside, what I found was a very wet, dirty, bedraggled collie.
I had to carry him into the house, and was really concerned that the leg might be broken. We laid him on the kitchen floor and Demetrius brought me some soapy water so that I could start to clean him off.
After working at it for a while, and at least getting some of the wet leaves out of his fur, I decided that this was going to take all night unless I got him into the bathtub. I used the sprayer to rinse out a huge amount of muck from his fur.
By the way, Brady freaking hates the bathtub. So, it was at this point that I learned, yes, actually he could stand up--and he wanted out of there NOW.
So I obliged, and cleaned him up just a bit more using some "waterless shampoo and conditioner".
He's doing pretty well today, thank goodness.
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