Catching Up....Roscoe's Bad Day

Okay....I'm going to make the effort to get this blog going again. So I thought I'd start with something simple and try to catch up as I go along.


This is a picture of Roscoe after his bad day. This story needs a bit of a preface. Not long after we moved to Arizona, Brian and I were called as the Webelos leaders for our ward. There was leader specific training one Saturday morning in Maricopa which is about an hour from where we live. It was supposed to go from 8 am to noon. So we left the house at about 6:45 am. As we were leaving I let Roscoe out in the backyard and asked my dad to let him back in the house before he left. My dad said he would and we were on our way to our meeting.

This also took place during my mom's not-so-enjoyable 5 day stay at the hospital in Casa Grande. (half way in between Coolidge and Maricopa) We arrived at our meeting and were completely overwhelmed by TONS of information and squirmed in our seats as the meeting ran OVER and hour and a half. On our way back to Coolidge we decided to stop in and see my mom at the hospital. My dad was there when we arrived and we stayed and visited for about a half an hour. As we pulled into the driveway Roscoe was sitting there in the FRONT looking pretty ragged. My poor dad in his hurry to go see my mom in the hospital forgot about little Roscoe in the backyard. We don't keep Roscoe's food and water outside because it's so hot. This particular day it was in the 100's! So poor Roscoe was outside for 8 hours in HOT weather with no water.

He freaked out and was able to push the side gate enough that he could SQUEEZE through to the front yard. In the process he scratched up his eyes pretty bad. We were glad that A) he was still alive and B) that he stayed right close to the house and didn't wander off. We let him inside where he DOWNED 2 bowls full of water and then threw up from drinking the water so fast. We were trying to get his body temperature down and get him cooled off. So we gave him a bath in COLD water. After this he was so cold he was SHIVERING. So I wrapped him up in a couple of blankets and put him on the couch to rest. This is the picture I took of him while he was wrapped up and cozy. He stayed on the couch like that for hours. He ended up losing a big patch of fur under each eye where he cut it up getting through the gate, but luckily most of the fur grew back in and he only has a small scar.

My dad felt so bad, but I know that he was just focused on getting to the hospital to be with my mom. We don't blame him for what happened, it was an accident. We're just glad that Roscoe is okay. He was a bit lethargic for the rest of the day and the next day, then he was good as new. He was a bit leery of being left outside by himself for a while as well, but he's gotten over that as well. We're happy that now it is cool outside and he can spend so much more time outside exploring and playing.