Doggie Downers

So Feb. hasn't been the greatest month for me and my dogs... we found out that Alba Nan wasn't pregnant. I guess its not the end of the world, but I was finally looking forward to the little rascals. Guess the positive side is that I'll get to get out there trialing with her this year. We butted heads at first, but the past week I've felt like we are really starting to connect. She's taking my commands more readily now and is really putting herself into her work instead of trying to outwit me. :) So, I'm getting excited about trialing her this year.

On another note, Blaze's is laid up with a recovering dislocated shoulder. We went to a friends house to work calves before the first cattle trial of the year we were planning to attend. I sent him to fetch the calves off a fence and I couldn't see what happened because he was directly behind the calves, but I guess he took a bad kick. He yelped and I called him to me. He was holding a front leg up about half way to me and set it down and put weight on it fine before he got to me, so I figured everything was fine. I sent him back to work for a min. or so longer and then put him up in the dog trailer. He wasn't taking a bad step so I didn't think anything else about it, that is until we got home. When he hoped out he wouldn't put any weight whatsoever on his front left leg. I took him inside and iced his shoulder down and took him to my work first thing Mon. morning.

We had him on the table prepping him for x-rays and my vet was manipulating his leg into position for the picture and his shoulder popped really loud and he screamed. She said, "Well there was your problem. It was dislocated." Poor guy! We took the x-rays anyhow to make sure there wasn't a fracture, and there wasn't. So we sat him down and he started walking around happy again. I loaded him up and took him to the gas station with me on the way home and when I got back in the truck he sat up and yelped again. So I took him straight back to work and sure enough it was out again. So he was sedated to put it back in place and wrapped up in a sling. Poor guy's been in that thing for almost 2 weeks and he's got another to go. He's pretty miserable. I feel soooo bad. Needless to say his cattle career is over. It's just not worth it to me! She told me if he took another bad kick like that and knocked it out of place we'd be looking at orthopedic surgery from a specialist and his entire working career would probably be finished. So, he's just going to have to be happy working sheep!

I'm hoping that we have enough time before the first sheep trial of the year and that I can slowly get him back in shape and prepared, but only time will tell. I'm not rushing it. I can't stand to see this guy in pain.