When life throws you a curveball, duck.  Or better yet, get out of the way.  But if you can’t and the ball hits you right where it counts, I try to remember the good days, to help get through the hard ones.  One of the good days was the last day of summer with Pinot and Lokie.

We’re free!

Since then, both dogs have been downed by suspected disk disease in their backs (IVDD) within a week of each other and are now on strict bed rest.  Which means no running, jumping, playing or long walks which they love to do.

Hearing them scream in pain and looking into their sad eyes as they just laid there broke my heart.  Over the past 3 weeks, as I nursed first Pinot out of pain, and now Lokie, I remembered that carefree last day of summer and hope they will both be up and outside again soon.

It was a gorgeous day and we let the dogs out to play down by the water.

They were both so happy to be outside.  Lokie pranced around with her tail held high

while Pinot patrolled the perimeter happily.

How many dachshunds are there in this picture?

When we first moved to this house, Lokie fell in the water the first time we let them near the lake (don’t worry, the water is really shallow for a good many feet from land so she was able to shoot out of the water by herself and high-tail it back towards the house, plus both Jim and I were right there ready to fish her out of the water if she hadn’t shot out by herself before we could react).

It seems she hasn’t learned yet not to stick her head down too close to the water.

And if you know dachshunds, you know they HATE the water.  I just think the words “bath time” and Lokie hides under the bed.  She can read my mind.

It was a great last day of summer for them and Pinot caught a ride back to the house in the wheelbarrow.

With four more weeks of bed rest in our future, there won’t be any days of frolicking in the grass for us, but hopefully this rest will heal them and they will be back to their happy tail wagging self soon.