GIVE HIM WATER!!

[Greystoked]

Sorry for the all caps... that's what (and how) the lady said...

The upcoming heat wave has brought this story to mind. It happened in 2014, our 3rd year with Joey, but first a little background. You may recall Joey came to us through the kind assistance of the Connecticut Greyhound Rescue group and the fine grey-talkers here. I thank you all. He had raced in Florida, and his foster family* told us he did not like the hot weather, and didn't care for walkies. (My goodness, I love this spell-checker with suggested speelings!)

Turns out Joey soon loved walkies in our little neighborhood, and endeared himself to everyone he met. He had many friends here. But he didn't like the heat of Summer at all.

Still, he wanted several walks everyday, including the Family Walk when we all stretched our legs, generally a stroll down to the boat ramp. Joey would soon get hot, tongue lolling, panting, and so we went slow and easy. And Joey discovered a way to cool off, a simple solution also known to small children. When we came to a particularly green and lush lawn, Joey would lie down with his belly on the cool, sweet grass. (This generally included flopping over onto the side, as an invite to rub his belly.) Something else we learned is that Joey would not drink when he was hot like this. Even when we got home, he'd rest for a while before drinking. We tried and tried when he was so hot and panting, other folk tried to no avail. He knew better than to drink when very hot.This is important further down.

During the course of a half-mile walk, he would do this take-a-break-on-lush-grass several times, so a walk often took some time. One of his favorite places was at the end of a street with cool grass and many children. They all know his name, they all come up to greet and pet. He loved this, of course. And cool, green grass.

You see, we live on a peninsula with a central boulevard. This street corner is just visible from the main road, but it's a good 300 feet distant and traffic generally flies by at 40mph. So what happened struck us a strange.

There we were, resting against a horse (thingy that you can tie a horse to, like cowboys on Gunsmoke and Bonanza and such, whatever the heck it's called) thingy**, Joey lying on his side, replete with belly rubs and ear scritches from the crowd of kids that were now returning to play. He's panting heavily, but we know the drill... he's fine.

Suddenly, a large SUV comes barreling down the boulevard and flies around the corner onto the side street, screeching to a halt in front of us. We look up, Joey looks up, we see an angry lady glaring at us who proceeds to exclaim, "I saw your dog panting! He's in distress! Have you given him water?! I have water here!!"

We reply with thanks for the concern, no, he isn't distressed, just hot and cooling off on the grass before we head home. He won't drink when he's hot like this, Lord knows we've tried, he has cool water waiting at home. But thank you very much for caring.

"He Needs Water! I have a dog! Take this water! (Waving a plastic bottle of water)"

Um. How did you even see us from the road? Thanks, really, but he won't drink now. He won't drink until he cools down. Really. No, thank you very much, but he won't drink. Thank you!

"He's panting! He needs water! Here, take it!!!"

At this point it's almost a one-sided argument, she insists on water, we explain he simply won't drink. He knows what's good for him. Cool, green grass and a rest. Finally Joey gets up and gives us a 'Can we please go home? Please? Now?' look, so we say goodbye to the playing kids and start of down the boulevard. Water-lady sits, glaring, then roars off down the street to turn around and roar off back to the main road. Still can't figure out how she even saw him, she doesn't live anywhere near here. Eagle-eyes.

We get home, Joey lies on his bed for a bit. When he's cooled some he has a nice, slow drink of cool, fresh water. Then he looks at us like "What was that even about? Time for a nap on Mum's cool, soft pillow."

After all, he was a trained (albeit retired) athlete. He knows he'll just retch and barf if he drinks when too hot. He was a Good Boy, Bront.****

 

Well, I am of course sorry to take so long with this. I attribute the wordiness to the mistaken belief, "Idjit! You let 6 months zip past before Greytalking, again!! Now type! Type like you've never typed before! Fast, like a greyhound! Type, boy, type!!!!!"***

 

*Funny, this... can't remember the names of the kind gentleman and lady who fostered Joey, nor their little boy, but I can recall the name of their Greyhound. Henry. My mind was a terrible wasted thing. Wait, terrible thing to waste. Something of that kidney, any road.

**Mary sez it's a hitching post. She smart.

***Five exclamation marks. Sure sign of a disturbed mind, according to Sir pTerry.

****Thanks, Imgur!

[MaryJane]

One of my greyhounds was like this - would never drink water when we were out but, we used to do all-day events and to not have him drink would be a serious risk to him - what I found always worked was vanilla milkshakes from McDonalds ... never failed.

[EllenEveBaz]

Quote

vanilla milkshakes from McDonalds

works for me    I wonder if some dogs would drink pedialyte.  My dogs won't drink anywhere but at home.  Would someone explain to me why a toilet is preferred to a water bowl?  

[Hubcitypam]

Some dogs will drink Pedalyte - especially the orange.  Toilet water is enhanced thus tastier. Sort of like mud puddles

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by Hubcitypam

[Mercsmom]

My Mercury is similar, refusing water when it's hothothot out.  Of course, people will offer water.  I'll politely refuse explaining we have water but he won't drink now. At which point... they will offer Mercury water.... and he'll drink.  Now I look like a bad greymom and he looks like a poor deprived houndie.  Little stinker.

[Em24]

When my dog did this I would put the water on him. He did not like it but it kept him cool when he would not drink. 

[Greystoked]

The year after this happened, Joey discovered a better way to cool down all on his own. We live next to a small river, where Joey enjoyed lying on little sandy beaches; he started with digging a huge hole until he hit wet sand, then he'd lie in the hole and scoop the cool, wet sand up over his hindquarters and belly. Spend an hour like that, listening to the sounds of the river, watching the ducks, and snoozing like a hound.

Then one day he discovered, he could actually wade in the water. And if he was wading, well, might as well lie down! So he'd get the cool water for a while, and when he got up, he'd be nicely soaked which would help keep him cool during the return walk home.

After that, every walk in Summer (yeah... actually, from March thru October) included a quick dunk in the river. Even have a vid of him stretched out, while wee fishes nibble at his tail, like those foot-cleaning beauty boutique jobbies, picking off skin flakes. He didn't like that, though... felt icky, I guess. (If you threw a bit of bread in the water, in seconds it would disappear in a ball of writhing fish bodies; like mini-piranha! So cool!)