Thirteen hundred meters too far

 Good morning, dear Blogger friends. Once again, I have been absent since posting about my recent birthday. As always work and social commitments pile up and I just don't get to post a blog.

Meanwhile, something happened the last weekend of February that almost ended in a disaster for me. 

I have not taken Skabby to the weekly Parkrun during the summer, for obvious reasons - it's been too hot. However, once a month there is a 5km run/walk starting at a local hotel, meandering along a loop through rough bush terrain and returning to the hotel. It starts at 5pm and although the weather was 30° C, I thought it would be cool enough to take Skabby,

He was ECSTATIC! He couldn't believe he was being taken in the car - for WALKIES. 

At the venue, everyone greeted him enthusiastically as he'd not been seen on walks with me since before Christmas. He lapped up all the attention and squealed and yelped in anticipation of the walk. 

You will see by the way the dog is off the screen - he was pulling me to get started! 

Once we started to walk, I let Skabby off the leash. He galloped ahead, ran between the walkers and runners ahead; dashed back to see where I was; ran off into the bush beside the track. He was SO excited to be walking with Mum again after so long. 

All good and well. We covered 4.5km without mishap; I called Skabby back to me and leashed Skabby up again. As we started off again, I heard my dog's breath rasping. Loudly. 

The weather had closed in and a storm, (of which Skabby is terrified) was brewing.  We crested a hill on top of which Zama, one of the hotel receptionists, had a table a large carafe of iced water. I stopped, drank a glass; filled the glass and poured it over Skabby's neck while I drank another glass full, and poured another glass over Skabby. I asked Zama how far to the hotel from that point. I told her that I needed to get my dog to the end. She said that shortly along the track, I should take a sharp left, and within a few hundred meters I would be approaching the end. 

However, when I reached the sharp left fork, I noticed runners sprinting up a hill to the right. Tugging Skabby's leash, I urged him with me, and we started to climb. Near the top, one of the runners (coming back) told me to turn around as Skabby would NOT make it up the incline. Which I did, with the very tired dog dragging behind me.

We reached the left fork with the river running along our right. By now, Skabby's back legs were buckling and at one stage he pulled me into some bushes next to the track and tried to lie down. I urged him to get up and we staggered onwards.   

Here I checked my steps on my smart watch: 6.3km. Far more than the 5km that we are normally used to. 

The steps leading up to the hotel lawn; I took this photo two days ago, facing downwards. You can see the steep gradient of these steps...

We came to the bottom of a set of 20 medieval stone steps which lead up to the hotel lawn. I managed to put Skabby's front paws on the second step and lifted his hind legs onto the first step. Just then other friends of mine arrived, and the gentleman helped me walk the dog up the steps. We got him across the lawn, and he collapsed on a ramp leading onto the veranda. 

By now it was drizzling, and realizing that my dog was overheated and exhausted, I lay him out on the concrete. Another friend, Bellle, who loves Skabby, came by and seeing what was happening she dashed into the bar and emerged with the largest plastic container filled with ice from the machine. 

While she packed ice around Skabby, talking to him all the while I found a bowl and dipped it into a fountain on the veranda. I poured water over Skabby. 

The hotel veranda was packed with guests enjoying the mountain view before going into dinner. The other runners from the walk, were sitting on a deck above where we were ministering to Skabby.  As people walked past, they'd stop and inquire whether the dog had had a heart attack. Thinking to myself, I hope not, I'd say, no, he's suffering from the heat. 

The hotel owner, Sunny, another a good friend of mine, arrived asking if she could assist in any way. I said I would like to phone the vet and ask his advice. She took me to her office, where I was able to raise the emergency vet on duty who happened to be engaged to the younger daughter of my farmer/neighbor's Gab and Nune. Jeff, who has known Skabby these past six years, advised me to cool him down (which Belle and I had been doing); to calm him down, as he'd be stressed with all the activity around him and to get him home! I shared this last instruction from the vet, with Sunny. 

When we got back to the ramp where Belle had managed to cool  Skabby quite significantly, although he was still very hot, a guest came by and asked if we needed help to get the dog my car. Sunny, who enlisted the help of a young male hotel employee. My Group Assistant from town had walked that night, while her husband, who has just had a heart attack scare, waited on the hotel deck. He took my car keys and within minutes had returned with a blanket which I use on my back seat when transporting Skabby. 

We managed to roll Skabby onto a blanket; the two men lifted each end and between them carried the dog, sling style across the veranda, through a reception lounge, with Sunny going ahead and opening doors and out onto the side veranda to the car park. While wending my way through the guests sitting at small tables on the veranda, enjoying pre-dinner drinks, I thought of how off the wall I am. Recently several of my contemporaries have had scares with their husbands taking ill (like my elderly neighbor at Christmas time) and my Group Assistant who'd had to rush her husband to hospital only ten days before this, here I am following kind people carrying my very sick dog to the car. 

When I arrived home, I parked the car and had no illusions about finding my darling Skabby alive. Miraculaously,  when I opened the back door, he lifted his head. Hallelujah! I dragged him off the back seat onto the lawn next to my car. 

 And thought, now what?

Punching Gab's number on my phone pad, he answered within seconds. I apologized for bothering him on a Friday night, but asked if he and Nune could please come and assist me with my dog which had collapsed next to the car. 

A few minutes later and they both arrived: Nune wielding a handheld torch. They both bent to look at Skabby and when they felt the dog, they were horrified at how hot he was. Nune ran to my veranda and on my instructions had taken a sealed bag of ice cubes from the freezer. Gab and I dragged Skabby across the lawn and onto the veranda. 

Nune and I packed ice around his body while Gab fetched my fan from indoors, started it and angled it towards the dog. Then he took the hose pipe and gently tricked water over Skabby while Nune and I continued to layer ice blocks around and under his body. 

Nune muttered that she could see Skabby drooling. The vet told me afterwards he was dehydrated through saliva and vomit emitting from his mouth. Skabby has very floppy lips and Nune gently placed ice cubes under his lips while I packed ice on the back of his neck. All the while, Gab was gently hosing Skabby's body down. 

After 45 minutes of the three of us, literally fighting for my dog's life, finally Gab said he thought Skabby's body heat was back to normal. He suggested I leave him on the veranda with the fan blowing directly onto him. He also said, he hoped not,  but if ANYTHING happened, I was to call them during the night.

These two wonderful people went back over the lawn to their home for the night. 

As you can see, my poor dog was sopping wet with ice melting under his body. However, here he seemed to be lying in a more natural pose compared to earlier

Once I had gone indoors (I needed a bath after my walk in the heat earlier), I kept coming back to look at Skabby through the glass panels of my door.  I did this every couple of minutes. I couldn't imagine that I would get much sleep that night. 

Then disaster struck! The storm which had built up while we were walking, arrived on the farm. As mentioned above,  Skabby is terrified of storms. I heard a rather close thunderclap seconds before I sensed (rather than saw) the lightning strike. 

And when I looked up again, Skabby was gone!

To be continued...