You think YOU had a bad week?

I don't know what's going on, but the universe seems to be screwing me over lately!

Here's a list of things that happened in the span of just a few days:

• Friday: Howler had an unfortunate accident with a willow tree and managed to poke his eye out. Literally! (more on that later)
• Saturday night: While wood cutting down on the river, Woody decided to follow some hunters who passed by on skidoos. He went for km's with them before they realized they had an "extra" dog! He was gone for awhile during which time I wondered where he was, went out to the river and looked for him... agh. Then the awesome hunters actually brought Mr. Bonehead back saying "he really likes running!" (I think he was just too much of a bonehead to realize he wasn't with me!)
• Sunday afternoon: I slipped while heading out to feed dogs, with a bucket of dog food/slop in each hand. I slammed down to the ground, mostly managed to hang onto the buckets, but one hit the ground so hard it SPLOOSHED the slop back up into my face, on my head, IN MY MOUTH!!!! Then it promptly froze. That's a first. In my mouth.
• Monday: Howler, with a new cone on his head managed to knock a glass of wine onto my laptop! (hey, don't judge, after this weekend, I needed the wine!). The result was an instant "ZAP" and the laptop shut off. I was convinced that was it's last breath

Luckily - Woody came back and my laptop miraculously turned back on (thanks Dad!). Howler was not so lucky to escape the weekend unscathed.

So, what happened to my poor Howler?  He had a run in with a stick vs. his eye, oddly in a moment when the pups were not dodging at a fast pace thru the trees, but while we were just walking through the bush. Total freak accident.

The stick won. The eyeball was eviscerated and there was no choice but to remove it.

This is the result, a sewed-shut eye that is pretty swollen right now.

Here he is the day he got home from the overnight stay at the vet clinic. He was sleepy, but SO happy to be home. He wouldn't even walk in the clinic, and had to be carried out.  Even though our vet is AMAAAAAAZING, he just wanted out of there. There was a significant improvement in his attitude the second he realized he was home with his pack! He was bouncy and happy.

The lack of vision in that eye really doesn't seem to be affecting him too much. He hasn't had trouble walking down stairs off the deck or jumping into dog pens. So we'll just have to see how it goes. As for skijoring... well, he was turning out to be the best of the bunch! We'll get him back into it when he's ready and used to the one-eye thing. Apparently there are a lot of one-eyed sled dogs out there, even some blind ones.

Dogs are amazing. But these pups! They are freakishly accident-prone!

Jack and Harris sniff him up here as he smelled weird to everyone.
Fossey was horrified when she saw him and went into "Protector" mode (she has become the little, possessive guard dog of the homestead!) and was verrrry cautious around him. The cone freaked them out mostly, but the smells threw them off too.


THEN! She realized it was her brother and moments later she tried to play with him. :)

In case you were curious how long a plastic cone lasts on an almost 9-month old pup - less than 24hrs! He demolished it to bits after catching it on a gate after eating this morning. Although it wasn't totally his fault, it got a bit wet while eating, then he was outside in -15C or so for a few minutes. Perfect combination for smashing a stupid plastic e-collar!

Anyways, so that was our week! Sucks to be us eh?? :)

But just in case... we're on homestead lockdown... forever!