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Hug your dog TWoosday

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Last night on our evening walk, TWooie almost died.  So today is Thank doG TWooie Is Still With Us TWoosday.

I took TWooie by his collar with two fingers last night – a greyhound style fabric martingale – to turn him around when I saw someone coming down the road with a dog.  It’s our dead end road and we rarely see anyone on it at night so I was taken a bit by surprise.  Somehow TWooie flipped himself around the wrong way and his collar got tight and he began to choke.  I couldn’t get my fingers, in my fat puffy winter gloves, out of the collar so he thrashed around and flipped himself again, making the collar even tighter.  More panic, another flip and I thought my fingers were going to break, and in all the panic and thrashing I couldn’t get him turned the right away.  And then TWooie passed out :(  And we were both on the ground at that point, with TWooie on top of me, and I still couldn’t get my fingers out of his collar.

Eventually I extricated my fingers – I think one is sprained, and my wrist is killing me – and sat on the ground and held him, and eventually he regained consciousness.  We just sat on the cold pavement while I clutched him to my chest and wept.

Hug your dogs today, for me and TWoo on a TWoosday.  We wuz very scared.

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Comments

  1. I’m so happy to hear that TWoo is okay…how terrifying! I have tears in my eyes, reading this! Big snacks and long runs are the prescription for him!

  2. What a horrendous experience, you poor things. Thank goodness everything turned out fine (apart from your finger/wrist). I’ve known this happen to a friend’s two dogs who got their jaws stuck in each others collars while wrestling. Amazing how fast a dog can panic and how strong their visceral reactions are. My friends dogs had to be cut out of their collars but for a few days couldn’t look at each other. I guess they strongly associated each other with trauma. Hope TWooie isn’t giving you blame looks.

  3. Absolutely! Hugs all around!

    Glad you and the Twoo are OK!

    Choking dogs are scary. My old dog Shay has a mass in his chest/throat. We’ve gotten it under control w/ prednisone but it was cutting off his air and blood to his head. It’s a little disturbing to have your dog put his head down to eat and come up w/ his tongue turning blue! (Food tray/water bowl has been put up on a box so he doesn’t have to drop his head so far to eat or drink.)

  6. Scary, indeed, Food Lady. So glad it was just a scare but poor Twoo and poor you. Many years ago, my cat came in with his belly on the floor and I thought his back was broken. I rushed him to the vet and while waiting in the exam room for the vet (whole other story about having to wait with an emergency situation)I discovered his “break-away” collar was embedded in his neck. He had apparently gotten it caught on something and instead of it breaking away when he struggled, it twisted and tightened. I thanked doG I hadn’t found him hanging from a bush or a fence. Extra hugs for all my critters today in honor of Twoo and Mr. Spock, the world’s best cat.

  8. Oh, poor Twooie and FL. I’m sure you both were very scared. So glad it ended OK. I would have sat down and cried too!!

  10. just like a toddler – you are standing right there, everything seems fine, and then all of a sudden you’ve got someone turning blue! so glad it turned out ok for both of you. the image of you both sitting on the grass while heart rates and breathing rates returned to normal is so true and tender. Keep icing that finger/wrist/forearm, and loving those dogs (and cats, and chickens, and…) Take good care, FL!

  11. OMG, how terrifying for both of you! My dogs were wrestling once, and one dog got his jaw caught in the other’s collar. Trying to calm them down enough to extricate the dog with the caught jaw and to keep the other one from passing out was hard & scary!

    I’m glad y’all are both (mostly) ok. Quick healing to your hand too.

  13. Oh, gods, I think I would have totally lost it in that situation. So glad things turned out as well as they did…. it sounds like they could have gone a lot worse!

    *hugs* Thank you for posting this… as awful an experience as it was, it’s moments like these that remind us just how precious our furry babies are to us.

  16. Wow this made chills go up my spine and brought tears to my eyes. The image is horrible to think about. I can’t imagine living through it. I’m so glad that he’s ok!

  18. Holy Crap! That is beyond terrifying, I think I would have nightmares about that for months to come. This is why I swear by break away collars for everyday use, and harnesses for walking. If my dogs didn’t need some kind of ID in case they go exploring, I wouldn’t have anything around their neck. Hugs to you and your pack!

  19. So glad it was a happy ending…
    I would have been a mess…how crazy is it that something so innocuous and everyday could turn deadly just that fast…
    Hugs to you and Twootie….

  21. Karen – that is a great idea.

    I’m thinking about one now for my flibberdigibbit agility dog, who occasionally needs reminders that I want her Right Here, Thank You.

  24. Oh my goodness…even with a happy healthy photo of Twooie staring at me here, my heart is speeding and I’m borderline panicking just reading your story. So glad he’s okay. Give him a huge hug from all of us. (I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now but this is the first time you scared me into commenting!!!)

  25. oh, Food Lady, how terrifying! oy, collar accidents are just brutal. i’m relieved to hear Twoo is OK. he must have been pretty freaked out when he came around, was the rest of your crew standing by to make sure everyone was OK?

    i am sorry about your fingers & wrist, though. i hope they’re feeling better soon. don’t forget, you can tape your ouchy finger to the finger next to it if you need to stabilize it. that way your ouchy finger won’t move around.

    no more scary stories, OK?

  26. Oh, gosh. Please give Twooie a hug from me. How scary!

    I have a horror of hanging a dog. I ordered a bunch of those breakaway collars once. But they perform exactly as advertised and really, dashing into traffic/other assorted trouble after the collar parts is also quite hazardous to canine well-being. Plus the dogs tear them right off one another and lose them in the yard. So now I’m back to turning them out nekkid. *sigh* I have a fenced yard, though – I’d be really scared to do that if I didn’t.

    Anyway, I’m so happy Twooie’s OK but I’ve no advice – other than get thee to a doctor about that hand! Don’t y’all have national health care up there? *turns green with envy* Take advantage of it! :-D

  29. Hugs to both you and Twoo. Dogs bounce back faster than humans do so he is probably mentally moving on while you are thinking about what might have happened.
    When my daughter was 2 she cried so hard she passed out and turned blue. Luckily she started breathing after losing consciousness but the dr was more concerned that I didn’t fuss around her so she would learn to use passing out as a way of getting me. Not that dogs would or could do that, just that I was the one traumatized and she was perfectly fine.

  30. So glad TWoo is okay – what a fright! Hoping that your fingers and wrist are recovering too! Extra special hugs to all pups everywhere!

  32. OMG!!! My heart almost stopped when I read your opening line! I am soooo glad Twooie is okay and hope that your finger and wrist heal quickly. Hugs, Hugs, and more Hugs to you both. I’m gonna hold my herd close tonight!

  33. How terrifying! I’m so glad TWooie is okay and I hope your wrist heals quickly. My BC can’t be trusted around strange dogs, so I’m always sticking my fingers under his collar when I think I may need to… gads. This will be a warning for me!

  34. You poor things, collars have to be one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment that we handle everyday not even realizing how potentially fatal they can be. Every time i go to the off leash park i see people leaving their dogs collars on especially choke chains and i just cringe. I tell as many people as i can the dangers of collars. Why sellers of collars don’t put warnings on them i can’t fathom, but i guess it all comes down to buyer beware, I am so glad that the two of you are okay, it would have been a tragic loss for everyone. Take care and hug your pooch again and again.

  35. Oh, FL, We are so glad twoo is alive! I use the ruffwear collar Karen mentioned, and I like it. It is easy to grab in an emergency. Just ordered you one, but since they don’t ship internationally, it’ll take a little longer. Will send it to NVD shelter. If it doesn’t work for you, you can “recycle” it. Just a way to say thank you for all the laughs, tears, and general joy you have given me and my fam. F.

  36. Many hugs for TWooie (poor little fuzzy boy) and you. I know from experience that accidentally hurting your dog is awful. I hope you both recover soon. :(

  37. {{{{{TWoo & Sheena}}}}}

    Very scary stuff. Similar thing happened to my dogs except it was a jaw locked in the other’s collar. No more collars in the house for us!

  39. I am so glad Twooie is ok. I hope your hand feels better soon. What a scary experience for both of you.

    Thankyou for all that you share through your words and pictuers. I feel like I know you and your dogs. I know I would recognize your pack if I met them out and about. I would be sad for any of them to come to harm but especially Twooie. He is a champ.

  40. Yow, that’s terrifying! Thank goodness you both are okay. Extra treats for TWoo for a while for sure, and a nice elastic bandage for your wrist!

  44. Thank goodness you are both ok. I injured my hand last week dog training and it is painful. Ice heat Ice Heat and lots of Ibuprofen. Tell Twooie he has got to learn to relax around strange dogs! : )

  45. Poor TWoo! Poor scared FL! Glad to hear you’re both okay. I get home to my fuzzy-headed second-self on Dec 15th, and I’ll be hugging him then. I’m thinking of you TWo(o), and of the rest of your menagerie!

  46. Wow, how frightening. So glad that Twooie is ok and I hope you are ok by now too. I gave my pups extra hugs after I read your story.

  47. i know it’s hard to have a rational reaction when there’s panic happening, but if you can step over the dog and get him in a bit of a leg-lock, it might stop any further flipping long enough to get the hand extricated. [my fingers have had a similar experience :( ]

  48. How utterly, horrifyingly awful and terrifying for you both. I’m so happy we all can continue to celebrate Twoosday and all things Twooie. Hugs for the lad from me and for Food Lady, too, because that was really, really rough.

  49. How scary! I can’t even imagine. I’m so glad Twooie is OK. What a freak accident. Hope your fingers aren’t hurt too bad. But, I guess you’ll take that over losing Twooie!

  50. Glad to hear you and the Twooie are okay. I have to second the Martingales with the clip. The clip has saved my girls a few times, and the Martingale still works with their lab/greyhound skinny heads!

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