Thinking outside the box

When I finish my story you will have another item (or 2) to add to your first aid kit.

I have 4 dogs; Jodie is a 13 year old corgie. She used to be the top dog until about 1 year ago. She hasn't completely let go of the idea. Taylor is a 10 year old choc. lab. She has always been bottom of the ladder. The new top dog is TS, he is a 5 yr old Border Collie (McNab) that is usually pretty gentle as a leader. Lastly is Ekko, the 4 yr old deaf australian cattledog that is second in command. She is really kind of a brat, and gets on Jodies nerve alot. But she's also a sweety. Through the years I've had various scuffles in the pack over position, food, or me. Sometimes someone bleeds. Sometimes Taylor because she's so low on the ladder, sometimes Jodie because she's not ready to get shoved down the ladder.

The other day was different, it was more like road rage in my kitchen. My normally diplomatic Border Collie has an issue with the door bell. I do not know where he developed it, but whenever he hears the doorbell he pounces on one of the lower dogs. He gets some relief evidently from flattening them in his flurry of frustration. The other day someone rang the bell and as I answered the door I heard TS launch in to his search for a trampoline, I told him to knock it off as I opened the door. Then the sound took a different note so I ran back to where he was and yelled that it was ENOUGH and I watched him let Jodie up. I got rid of the people at the door and went back to check on the dogs. Jodie was dripping blood on the kitchen floor, again.

I kicked everyone else out in to the yard and tried to get a good look at Jodie's throat. She has long hair for a corgie, they call then fluffies, she looks like a sheltie with no legs. All I could see was a bloody bit of white fur. Everytime I tried to pull the fur back to get a better look it would kind of run out more and drip on the floor. I knew I needed to get a better look, which meant I needed to clip the fur back. This was another 30 minutes of scissors and clippers and trying to keep Jodie in place. Once I got the area cleared I could see it was still bleeding. I needed to get a somewhat permanent bandage on it just to see if I could get the bleeding to stop. This wasn't an emergency situation yet, but I wanted to make sure it was going to come under control or it would become one.

Paper towels will stick to a wound so I went in search of my gauze. I could not find it. I found the make up pads, which I use to clean the dogs ears. What else would I use them for? Bandaids - do not work for dogs. Minipads. Let's see, I need something to absorb the blood that won't stick to the wound. Well, as long as I fold it back so the sticky part that sticks to everything it ISN'T supposed to stick to is away from her skin it should work just fine. And it did. I put the minipad on the puncture wound, wrapped a bandage around it to hold it in place and in 30 minutes I took it off. The bleeding had stopped and it didn't get reopened by the bandage sticking to it.

TS will be undergoing some reconditioning using a tape recording of the doorbell, Jodie is healing up just fine, and my first aid kit now has a minipad in it. Oh, and don't forget to keep a cigarette there as well. Damp tobacco will pull out the poison from a wasp/bee/hornet sting - I learned that from a nice old man once when I stepped on a wasp in the bottom of my boot. Better get one in there while you can, they're getting harder to find.