The Craftivist: The Title Well is Temporarily Dry

This is the face of a dog who didn't know when to quit. It was a good 95 degrees out a couple of days ago and Cocoa here spotted something in the field while I went to pick peaches. She chased the thing and barked at it and just generally had a fit until she finally collapsed from heat stroke. Not heat exhaustion, full blown heat stroke.

Now, by the grace of God, I got a hunch to stop picking and head towards the barn to check on her. I found her, collapsed, panting like mad, about 10 feet from her water bowl and the shade of the open barn where she usually hangs out when we go to the field. I hurried and hosed her off, brought the water too her, helped her lift her head enough to drink it and then managed to get her up and into the car so I could take her back to the house and get her into the air conditioning. Unfortunately, her back legs weren't working properly so it was a struggle for me (weighing in at 130-ish pounds) to get her (weighing in at 75-ish pounds) to the car.

We then called in the vet who told me that I was lucky to have found her when I did because had it been a couple of minutes longer she would've probably died. He then gave her fluids and basically said that it would be a waiting game from there. Fortunately, she came out of it and to look at her now you wouldn't be able to tell that she had been so sick just a couple of nights ago.

That particular picture was taken just after she threw up all over my brand new rug, hence the fact that she is laying on the non-slip mat instead of the rug itself. And for all the animal lovers out there, do not worry, that little box by her neck is not a shock collar. It's a spray collar that shoots a mist of water or citronella (depending on what you fill it with) everytime she barks, although it was empty on the day of the incident.