Waiting and waiting and waiting.....

Remember our number one stock dog, Jessie?  Well, at eleven years young, she has reached the dowager stage and is entitled to special treatment.  It's been quite a year for us, with respect to our dog population here JOTOLR.  It has declined considerably.  You'll remember Torre who was felled by that maple tree.  And just prior to that both of our older dogs, one 13 and the other 12, perished. 


And, quite suddenly we almost lost Jessie, too, who is ten, but she's on the mend.  Jessie was slowing down a lot.  Her agility as she aged was compromised.  We believe, as a result of that she had some kind of tanglement with something--probably the calf, but we didn't see what, which has left her hind quarters impaired and for awhile her mental capabilities were serious diminished as well. 


But, we've been looking after her with devoted attentiveness and our reward is that she is at least herding chickens, now, she has regained a sense of humor, and at least gets excited --as excited as a handcapped old lady can get--about the thought of finding a rabbit or a mouse in the grass.  To be sure, she isn't her "old self" but she's a heckuva lot better than she was on October 15th. 


It's been a long haul, Jessie has moved inside with us, mostly, but she goes out with us to milk, to herd chickens and turkeys and has adapted amazingly to being an inside and physically impaired dog, even has organized herself around her bathroom needs, whimpering if she needs to go out right away; otherwise responding appropriately when let out. 


You see, whatever happened, has left her barely able to rise from her bed.  She's lost considerable weight, and if she were a human she would probably be wheelchair bound.  She gets up, ever so slowly, to our cheering.  And this is an incredible step forward.  For awhile it looked as if she would never get up by herself.  At the beginning of her accident, we had to set her up on her hind feet, steady her until she gained equilibrium, and help her toddle into motion.  We're pretty sure the calf kicked her in the head as her teeth on one side were shattered.   


But, she's a game little thing, and each day she adds another success to her recovery process.  And we are cheering!!


OK...back to the waiting and waiting and waiting....When Jessie goes out in the frigid mornings we've had lately, she shivers.  So, I decided to knit her a dog sweater.  She chose the dusty rose color herself ! :-)) Isn't it divine? Conveniently her tastes ran parallel to the yarn given to me by my friend Debbi.  And Jessie really liked the style as well...


And believe me, she's definitely a fashion statement, when she steps out, now.  The cows are simply amazed, as are her two other Border Collie friends, Cade and Bandit.  They all--cows and dogs (and, I am not joking here)--come up to sniff her and ask, "What the heck is this.........?!  Some apparition?  Or aberration?"  No kidding!  MM had to drive off the cows when Jessie first paraded her new sweater and her Frisbee for all to see!  They wanted an up-close sniff of her!  But Jessie held her head high, disdained their uncouth explorations of her wardrobe,  and best of all....she didn't shiver!


Meanwhile....her sweater, for me, became an Internet project.  What's that, you ask?  Well, since I am still on dial-up, I used "spare" time, sitting at the computer, waiting and waiting and waiting....for images to appear on my blog, for text to download... and as I waited and waited and waited I knitted and knitted and knitted, and Jessie's sweater took shape.  I now have a finished knitting project (wooohoooo!) and Jessie is warm and comfy.  Not only that!  She looks fabulous in it and would be a credit to anybody's runway!


And I am ready to start another Internet knitting project!  Better finish before the end of March, though.  That's when High Speed Internet is currently scheduled to come to those of us living out here JOTOLR!