Cooperative medical care - for dogs

Fanny is a 15 year old service dog belonging to Tony, the head of FIDO. Poor Fanny has had a great life and given a lot of people much joy and happiness, but she is not now in great shape. Old, heart problems, and now kidney problems. Now, she needs to have liquids dripped in under her skin every other day to insure that she is okay. Not so easy to do - dogs don't understand "just stay in one place for a half hour while I put a needle in your back and drip medication in. " Funny about that - they understand so many other things. So it was very nice today that we could help out Fanny and Tony by being a cooperative medical support group. 5 - 10 people altogether, holding the medication bag up high, putting the needle in, holding it in place, keeping Fanny still, comforting the dog, keeping the other dogs slightly apart from her, stopping any roughhousing nearby, and doing some documentation. One of the group is a nurse, and made sure everything was done right. Fanny got her treatment, trotted off quite briskly, looking back at us with a VERY accusing look. We were so glad that we could help them out.

In other news: two photos of "taken care of trees" on our walk - grotesque large stumps uglifying our beautiful park. Both are in locations where people don't walk right under or near them. Makes me want to cry.

Big brown dog "standing guard" at the walk up Lookout Hill. We think this is the dog that either lives on his own in the park, or is released every morning and picked up every evening, as a free doggie day care. The dog seems quite peaceful, not aggressive or angry, although he ran off when we approached. JJ didn't even bother to bark.