Siggy

Not too well at the mo. Not that I'm complaining - I get to hog the really comfy couch, and the TV remote, and get mollycoddled. More than usual, that it :)

Bizarre. Basically, Bear and I were dog sitting Marco, who is a year older than our woofler, Sigma, 9 months, but has the same mother . They get on wonderfully, and Sigma loves Marco's visits.

Like all mammalian brothers, they love a to play fight, their favourite game being to drag each other around by their collars. So when they started skittering around the living room, as usual, I chucked them out into the back garden while I got on making some Chilli Jelly.

A few minutes later, I heard the most unholy yelping. Not the usual play-growling.

I dunno. Instinct just took over. One minute, I was in the kitchen, the next I found myself next to two dogs in the snow. Marco the elder was yelping and panicking, and Sigma was prostrate, eyes closed.

Marco's bottom jaw canine teeth were hooked underneath Sigma's collar, and couldn't get free. How the heck he'd managed that, I've no idea, it was so unbelievably tight. So tight, that Sigma was being chocked. I tried my darnest to free the collar from the teeth, but had no success.

Meanwhile, my hands were slick with blood from Marco's gums, and I couldn't get a grip on Sigma's collar to undo it. Meanwhile, poor Sigma was breathing, eyes closed and unconscious, and the only way I could even hope to undo the buckle was to pull even tighter.

I shouted The Bear, and for what seemed an age, we alternated between one of us trying to free the thick leather from Marco's canines, and undoing the buckle on Sigma's collar. In reality, it couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes. Somehow, we managed it.

Marco ran into the house, and poor Sigma was laid lifeless in the snow. Poor Bear was absolutely distraught. Crying and shaking "I've lost my dog, I've lost my dog" :(

It seems in our attempts to get him free, I'd had to pull it even tighter to get the peg out of the buckle.
I checked his breathing and heartbeat, and it was zero. bear was right.

So I thought, it's worked with people (other stories for another time) so I asked Bear to tuck his tongue in, hold his mouth shut, and blow through his nose when I asked, while I pumped on his rib-cage like crazy.

Within gods only know how long, he coughed, was sick, so I scooped him up, carried him indoors, rubbed him with a towel, and wrapped him in one of Bears jumpers and a blanket , and bless him, he slept on the couch with Bear by his side for 12 hours. He's back to his demanding yappy old self.

Me? It would seem I was bitten and scratched during our endeavours, and lost a few fingernails. Which means I've got some unwelcome 'bugs' in my system. Meh.

The moral of this story is? The skills that we pick up as parents never, ever, let you down.