Doggie Adventures
We have a JRT named Jack. We adopted Jack in 2004 when he was about 4 years old. He's now at least 17. Jack was born deaf. He also had some serious eye issues that required one surgery several years ago to save his sight, then a second surgery in 2013 to remove one of his eyes. He's been pretty high-functioning despite his handicaps but lately he's gone almost completely blind in his good eye so getting around has been a real problem for him.
To say that Jack and I don't see eye-to-eye (so to speak) would be an understatement. He's always been my wife's dog and has taken it upon himself to be her personal guardian...even from me. He's very annoying but I tolerate him.
Today about 4pm I got a call from my wife while I was finishing up at work. She'd put Jack out front to do his business, went inside for a short time, then went back out front to retrieve him. He never wanders far...never has in the 14 years we've had him. He's an in and out kinda guy. Does his thing and then scratches on the door to be let in. Well, tonight he wasn't there. She looked around and didn't see him. She went inside to put shoes on and heard a faint bark. It was coming from the creek area below the house. Our house sits about 20' above a pretty substantial creek...especially this time of year. It's heavily overgrown with brush and very rocky. Access to the creek from the back of the house is straight down about 20' and very difficult. But even to get to the embankment that drops down to the creek you have to make it down two levels of terraced yard.
Oh, yeah...it was about 25 degrees and snowing out with about 4 inches on the ground.
Somehow, Jack had managed to find his way around to the back of the house, down the two terraced levels where he then fell over the 20' embankment. Wife said she could hear him barking but after a few minutes it became weak and sporadic and then stopped. She called an elderly neighbor to come over and standby while she attempted to get down to the creek in the dark and in the snow. And Jack is almost all white...like snow-covered ground.
It didn't sound good for the old guy. But somehow, once she got down there, he managed another bark. She was able to locate Jack from that single bark. He was almost fully submersed in the fast-moving creek, clinging to the muddy bank with only his front paws and head out of the water.
I got home just in time to meet her behind the house and we got Jack inside. He was in pretty bad shape and was just a muddy, shivering, wet mess. There's no doubt she was saved him with only moments to spare. He was so weak he couldn't stand and his breathing was very labored. We got him into a warm bath, cleaned him up, dried him and wrapped him in a blanket. After a half hour or so he was able to stand and walk a bit but breathing still seemed to be an issue.
We decided to see how he does thru the night and both agreed there was little point in taking the old guy to the vet. Even though he's been a tremendous pain in the ass for me, I don't want him to suffer. It's a toss up whether or not he'll last the night but we'll see.
He's always been a tough little bastard. Kind of impressive he was able to hang on long enough to be rescued.
One-Eyed Jack
Colorado AR-15 Shooters Club Discussion Forums
Welcome to the Colorado AR-15 Shooters Club Discussion Forums.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Fentonite
