Kami's Pal

When Pal was a year old we took him to the cabin for Spring Break. Kami loved her dog, and although it was a lot of work to begin him along, it was good to have him. He was a sweetheart.

Golden Retrievers are known for their nice personalities, but I think Pal was the best of them all. He was a papered pure bread, creamy white in color, with the biggest dark eyes that looked at me so intently I could swear he was communicating with me.

We had a great time at the cabin. At the first of the week the weather was nice, and Kami and Pal ran all over with Krissi tagging along behind them. Kami was almost eight, Krissi six, and they were a hoot! Stephen came with us, and although he was seventeen he didn't seem to mind hanging out with his little sisters. Most of the time he went hiked the creek and went fishing, but in the evenings we played games and read stories and enjoyed sitting around the fire in the cabin.

Like always, playing at the creek was the girl's favorite thing to do. It was too cold for swimming, but they had ball skipping rocks and throwing sticks into the water.

“Look what Pal does,” Kami told me the first afternoon. She picked up a big twig and hurled it as far out over the rushing water as she could throw. Instantly, Pal jumped into the water and swam after the stick, caught it in his mouth, then swam back to shore. Climbing out, he dropped the stick at Kami's feet, tensed his shoulders, then shook wildly back and forth, flinging cold, muddy creek water all over us.

“Pal!” I exclaimed as I ran out of range, shaking my head in disgust. Wet dog was not my favorite smell in the world.

“Don't you think it's too cold for Pal to go swimming?” asked Kami in concern.

“No,” she told me matter-of-factually.

“I think it is,” I tried to persuade her, but Moe, coming up behind me, just laughed and said Pal would be fine.

“He's a retriever,” he said as if that settled the matter. “He's bread to jump into icy water and retrieve ducks. This won't bother him at all.”

The next day we walked down to the crossing, where Chamberlain Trail crosses Haigler Creek. There are some deep holes there, and the girls wanted to go fishing. They didn't catch anything, but they sure had fun tossing sticks in for Pal to swim after.

Eventually, Kami used up all the twigs she could find, so she started throwing rocks into the creek. Pal didn't care what he chased. In he jumped, plunging out of the creek seconds later holding the rock in his mouth. He was amazing!

The weather turned cold on Thursday, clouding up and getting quite blustery. We were all thrilled when we woke up to snow on Friday morning. It was beautiful! The only thing I worried about was Pal, but Moe assured me that he was bread for cold weather and he would be fine outside on the front porch.

Friday afternoon, though, Kami ran in the cabin calling, “Mom, mom, Pal's hurt!”

Following her outside, I saw what she was talking about. One side of Pal's neck was red and covered with blood, and he wouldn't stop scratching.

“Moe,” I called anxiously down the hill. “Can you come up please. Something's happened to Pal.”

We couldn't figure out what had happened to Pal. It looked like he'd been cut with wire or something, but how?

“Maybe he got his neck stuck in a barbed wire fence or something?” Moe suggested as we tried to wash the blood and mud out of his fur. We didn't do a very good job, it obviously hurt and Pal didn't like being touched there.

To keep him from scratching and making it worse, Moe wrapped Pal's feet with old rags and duct tape.

Our holiday was over, anyway, so we packed up and came home. The next morning Kami and I took Pal to see the veterinarian.

“Is Pal alright?” I asked anxiously, when the Vet came out from examining him. “Do you think he was cut by wire or something?”

“No,” the Veterinarian replied. “He cut himself?”

I looked at him in surprise.

“Pal has an ear infection,” the doctor explained. “It hurt, so much that he scratched so hard it cut his neck.”

Well, that was a surprise, but I was glad to hear he hadn't got into something up at the cabin that hurt him.

“I've given him an antibiotic to clear up the infection,” the doctor continued, “and we've cleaned the wound. He should be just fine soon.”

“Thank goodness,” I said, squeezing Kami's hand. I think I had been as worried as she was about her best friend.

But I wasn't so happy when the doctor brought Pal out a few minutes later and turned us over to his receptionist. She gave me a bill for $300.00!

Three hundred dollars, just for some penicillin and to wash off some blood? Man, having a dog was more expensive than I had bargained for! It's a darned good thing I loved him.