A few days ago MommaK asked how we'd fare in a crisis.

The last 'emergency type' crisis I could remember was a few years ago when my daughter fell down some granite steps and needs some stitches on her forehead. I, surprisingly, handled it with little fanfare and that was that.

Maybe it was karma, not having a crisis for so long tempted the crisis gods, or something because yesterday a mini crisis ensued.

Vet appointments. Both dogs at the same time, something I swore I'd never do again after last year. I have a over the snout collar for the lab as he tends to pull and he gets really excited at the vet's. He must sense their love of animals because he can't get enough of the place.

Anyway...the over the snout collar broke and he bolted. Down the hill and right into forty mile an hour traffic. He made it across amid the screech of brakes and then in a panic looked back up at me, 100 feet behind him up a hill in front of the vet clinic and he decides to come back. Eyes on me, right back into traffic.

He makes it between the cars to the yellow line, cars traveling in different directions and then panics and heads back across to where he was. He got hit. Thankfully, not badly. But in the midst of this chaos (me standing in one spot afraid to call his name because he might try to cross, again/the kids coming around the building with Fred in tow crying/the girl who hit Baxter stopping to apologize and cry/the vet tech from the office sprinting down the hill and after Baxter who has decided that running parallel to the busy road is a better idea than trying to cross it/the girl next door at the bank who took off running with the vet tech) I somehow cleared my thoughts and did what had to be done.

I told the girl in the car not to worry, he ran away and will be okay (a guess but I didn't want to deal with her tears), I hugged my kids quickly, reassured them and brought Fred inside for safekeeping, piled the kids into the car and took off down the road in search of my pup. I drove and drove, around parking lots and cul-de-sacs and finally found them. The vet tech, leading Baxter on a leash about a mile and a half from the accident. My dog was bleeding from some wounds around his eye and his lid was all droopy and nasty. He didn't seem to be limping but he's a strange dog who once ran around for TWO hours after cutting his leg almost to the bone on a reciprocating saw blade, so I wasn't sure.

They spent alot of time at the vet checking him out and scratching him. Not one sign of injury. Only some cuts.



So, the crisis? Not so bad. But my Fred is suffering from heart disease they think. I cried when I got home. I love these two canines. Love them ridiculously.