Radar’s Alert

 

Monday was a rough day!  It started off harmless enough.  I went and did a therapy dog visit at Aspen Ridge Rehab Hospital. Then I went and ate lunch with a friend.

Then my blood glucose decided to go awry. For 6 hours I was all over the map. Up and down…it was like roller coaster ride that I couldn’t get off of.  To be honest, I don’t remember much of the evening.  Lows are like wading in mud up to your waist.  You try to push on through to get to the other side but sometimes it is easier to just sit and sink!  I know that both Bravo and Radar had a busy evening.  If I am home Radar generally alerts first.  I think that it is because he is most often laying on my lap or on the arm of chair, while Bravo is on floor at feet or laying on the couch. (Yes my dogs are allowed on the furniture….so if you don't like dog hair it probably isn't a good idea to come to my house.) 

Because Radar is sort of new to all this, I am still learning his patterns of alerting and still building a trust with him.  For those of you that know Radar, you know that he has a nickname that he lives up to. For those of you that don’t know Radar…lets just say when he is good, he is absolutely wonderful but when he is bad………HE IS HORRID!  Radar does nothing in moderation!

Anyhow I am sitting in my chair thinking about taking a nap…the phone rings and it is Kim, my diabetic educator.  I remember talking to her at first then my memory gets real fuzzy.  The rest of this is from her. “You was telling Radar to stop it and go lay down. When I ask you what he was doing, you replied he is smacking me in the head with his paw.  I ask what Bravo was doing you said laying on couch looking at me.  You kept getting after Radar telling him to leave you alone. I ask if you had checked your sugar, you told me it was 128 about a half hour ago. I told you to check again. You kept growling at Radar to stop it.  When ask again what Radar was doing you told me he was standing on your shoulder licking your ear, pawing your head and that Bravo had his head in your lap and was staring at you.  I finally got you to check and you had dropped to 39.”

Radar is tenacious!  When he decides he is really going after something NOTHING will stop him.  It is like the more you tell him no, the more he says “Well, WATCH THIS”!

I got Radar with no real specific purpose in mind.  He was going to be my ‘truck dog”.  I wanted a little dog but I needed one that could hang with my big dogs.  Nothing fazes him, except he doesn’t like my brother stomping his feet at him.  Radar retrieves birds, jumps off the dock (SOMETIMES when water isn’t to cold), plays at agility, does stupid pet tricks, and will do about anything I ask him to do…but he does everything with a big dog attitude.  I tell people that he is a 18 pound, 15 inch tall Chesapeake Bay retriever. He is really a Parson Russell Terrier.  What a funny little dog!  When I first got him, he snuggled right into me.  Then we went to go get a harness for him and he tried to eat me in the middle of Petco.  Radar has always been at the extremes.  He does nothing halfway.

No matter how he handles things I am just glad he is as tenacious as he is about alerting.  A friend once told me “A stubborn person needs a stubborn dog!”  Hmmmm, I guess I deserved that remark!