ARRRRGH These girls!

So two days ago Ivy was sleeping on the sofa and Party jumped up on top of her. Ivy leaped up with a WTF!, Party responded with, "Don mess wit me, ole lady!" and they were off. I happened to be on the sofa at the time too, so I grabbed each one by the collar and yanked them apart -- no major damage. Ivy had a little gash on her head above her eye and Party got a small wound on her leg (her Decotog pajamas took most of the damage). Nothing bled much, so I just separated them till they cooled off, lectured Ivy on how she was too freaking old for all this -- she will be 15 in January -- and forgot the whole incident.

Till tonight at 10:30 pm. I was getting everyone settled for bed in the living room when I noticed spots of blood. Assuming it was Juliet coming in season, I marched her off to the dog room and proceeded to clean up the spots. But they seemed to be multiplying rather than going away. Finally it got through to me that the source must not be Juliet after all and I began checking everyone else. Ivy had apparently scratched her head on a shrub during her last nature's call outside and opened up the wound on her head. I took her in the kitchen (tile floor) to put some pressure on it with paper towels. It wouldn't stop bleeding. This went on for a good five or ten minutes, until I finally went up to tell Walt I wasn't coming to bed right away.

He came down and took over holding the paper towels, but we decided we were going to need some help. Called the emergency vet in Lynchburg and loaded Ivy and me in the back of the car. Walt drove. But about the time we got over the first mountain, we realized that Ivy had stopped bleeding. So we turned around, came home and called the emergency vet to tell them we thought we had it under control.

But we can't leave Ivy alone now because she's likely to rub her head with her paw since it hurts. So here I sit with her for the first shift. She looks like something that just emerged from a fight in the pit, with dried blood caked all over her face and head. Around four Walt will get up and take over the watch while I get some sleep, and when our regular vet opens, I'll run her up there for some stitches, which I obviously should have done two days ago.

As Roseanne Rosannadanna says, "It just goes to show ya', it's always somethin'. If it's not one thing, it's another thing..."

Oh, Party? She's sleeping like a baby in the living room.

PS If you go to the Decotogs site and click on SNUGGLIES AND PULLOVERS, you'll see the cutest whippet and min pin up in the corner, modeling their pullovers. That would be our Jetty and his "sister" Lucy, who belong to Lynn and Jason in Ohio! (Jetty was Flint in the Gemstone litter.) All our dogs highly recommend Decotogs. They say no whippet's life is complete without fleece pajamas!