Galaxies - Trouble with Junior - A Difficult Morning

I just checked out PhotoBlog.msnbc and saw some gorgeous galaxy photos from NASA. They truly remind me of an artists work, such a beautiful universe. The one pictured here is Cygnus X and shows stars being born. It was captured by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. Cygnus X is 4,500 light years away in the Constellation Cygnus or "the Swan". Check them out and see what you think. Do you realize there are billions of galaxies out in the Universe? It's all incredibly beautiful and absolutely awesome.  The discoveries are coming in faster than ever before. There are 700 confirmed planets called exoplanets outside our solar system. They have even found 2 planets that have 2 suns, something thought to be impossible. There are two satellites that have been recently sent to the moon to learn about gravity, something I want to stay informed about. Again I encourage you to check it all out. It brings out the child-like wonder in us all.

Now, as to my difficult morning, it started out with me feeling sick as soon as I got up. I felt very dizzy and nauseous. All I could think of is good gracious what is going on here, I should not be sick. I finally guessed that it might be due to a blood sugar drop and sinus pressure combination. I had some juice, a bowl of cereal and took my homeopathic sinus medicine and after a while I felt better but knew it would be a slow day and I would be over sensitive to everything. Then it was time to feed our two dogs and Sweet Kitty. Our Yorky, Doogi begins to do his bouncy, excited performance. He has enthusiasm for everything, a real joy boy. And Junior, our large Retriever-Border Collie mix, with his sweet brown eyes that tell all his feelings, was standing quietly waiting for the morning grub.

I put out the food, one bowl for Doogi and one bowl for Junior side by side and turned to the kitchen sink to clean up. Suddenly there was the crashing sound of the bowl, dog food spread everywhere on the floor and Junior standing to the side with his mouth open not moving. At first I couldn't tell what was going on and was afraid I would get dizzy if I bent down to check him. The first thing I looked for was choking and could not find anything when I checked down his throat. I knew he was breathing and his tail was actually slightly wagging but he continued to stand with his mouth open, not moving. I couldn't see anything at first so I sat on the floor and started to feel around his mouth and teeth. I didn't have my glasses on but something looked amiss by his teeth so I felt some more and realized something was attached to his teeth. I pulled on this something and it came off. It was a curved piece of bone that he must have had in his mouth when he came in from outside and when he tried to eat something happen that clamped the bone to his teeth. When I looked closely at it I could see it was curved in a U shape and it also had a sharp point at one end. As soon as it was off he was fine physically but it was a trauma for him and he went to his bed for a while and rested after being comforted for a while. Later he came back to his bowl and ate his meal.

All I could do at this point, after the emergency, was wrap myself in my soft blue robe and rest on the couch for a while with a cold cloth on my forehead. Little Doogi weathered the crises quite nicely and ate some of the extra food that had spilled out on the floor not being concerned one bit. However when I laid on the couch he came to comfort me and stayed by me till I felt well enough to get up.

We never feed our dogs bones like this. Junior likes to find the deer legs and other things that hunters leave around in the woods after they kill and cut up the animal. I guess they don't care to think about the possibilities to other animals when they leave their mess behind. I am now begging my husband to put some kind of fence, even a small area where Junior will be safe from these kinds of issues.

Our animals are our children and our friends. I guess I believe it never hurts to be more cautious than less. At our previous home Junior grew up being free to roam a fenced area of over an acre. It is hard for my husband to keep him from his freedom now and I do understand this. After all Junior has friends to visit and places to explore - being a dog. But, I could not bare to loose him and all our animals go for a walk with their Dad through the woods everyday and sometimes twice a day and in the summer when we garden and landscape our animals are out with us. There is the old adage better safe than sorry and I'm just an old fashioned girl.

Our 2 dogs were also adopted and I will share their lovely stories and pictures another day.