JOEY STORIES
FROM CHARLOTTE
PART DEUX

16 MAY:

Skippy's hydrotherapy video was inspiring.

So inspiring, in fact, that I thought that Joey would benefit from the same treatment. I have a continuing concern about his lack of exercise, and the non-stressful & natural movement in minimally-resistant water sounded like a good idea.

I don't have a swimming pool, but the "pool" in Skippy's video didn't look much bigger than my bathtub, so I decided to give it a try.

So, into the tub we went. I decided to get in with Joey before starting the water running so that it would be a gradual & non-threatening transition. I turned on the water (kind of a lukewarm temperature) and let it run. And run. And run. I forgot about the overflow valve. The water never got high enough to lift Joey and require any movement on his part.

Ah, well . . . the doggie shampoo was at hand, so he got a bath and smells really good. I got a shower. Needless to say, this was not a successful experiment. (Attempting this with only one fully-functioning arm was probably not the best of ideas, but since it was time for the ice pack anyway, I'm sure no lasting damage was done.) This picture shows how happy Joey was about the whole thing.

Not one to give up, however, I'm going to try it again. I'm going to cover the overflow valve and I'm going to get a PFD [Personal Flotation Device] for Joey so that he will be buoyant and will, hopefully, do some dog-paddling.

As an alternative, maybe I'll just take him out on the dock and throw him in the river.

28 MAY:

Having been re-inspired by another video of Skippy in hydrotherapy, I got a life vest for Joey, closed off the overflow, and tried again. I think the pictures show how happy he was with the experiment. He was not a happy swimmer! He tried to get out of the tub; he did not, however, panic.

He did finally do some paddling.
I took that as a good sign.

JOEY IS UP
FOR ADOPTION . . .

. . . OR IS HE?

29 MAY 2008

I'm just about ready to put Joey up for adoption. I had dinner with a friend last night and, surprise!, the talk turned to Joey. I knew my friend is not currently 'in the market' for a dog but, nonetheless, I gave him my sales pitch for Joey.

Steve would be a wonderful adoptive parent. He is incredibly compassionate. Being in a somewhat curmudgeonly mood last night, Steve gave me reasons he did not want to adopt (despite having had numerous dogs in the past). One reason he gave was the necessity for taking the dog out to take care of 'business.' I quickly assured him that would be no problem with Joey since Joey is not housebroken and would not need to go outside for that.

I wonder . . . do you suppose that was really a good selling point?

A GOOGLE VIDEO WITH JOEY IN IT

Joey is the front dog, pretending not to be interested in the game; Kizzie has the red halter, Sissy the black one. Sissy is from the SCOTLAND 2 Rescue Mission of August 2006.