My Amazing Dog

My Loyal Friend:

A few years ago my husband had a mysterious illness and was laid up in hospital for 3 months.

Our day started out as normal, doing the routine feeding of animals on the farm but this day had a few extra activities. We were rostered on for meals on wheels in the local town for delivering lunches.

We returned home to have our own lunch then went to collect some firewood for our tenants. As the four wheel drive was not working in the ute we parked it at the top of a hill where there was some well dried dead trees at the bottom. My husband used the chainsaw to cut the logs and I carried them up to load into the tray of the ute. When we had finished he said he didn’t feel too well so I suggested he go home to bed while I delivered the wood.

By the time I returned he was in a raging fever and soaking wet from perspiration. I dropped all other plans and drove him 24 kilometers back into Foster to see a doctor. He was examined immediately , blood tests and xrays taken and we were advised to go home and the doctor would call us with the results.

Not long after arriving home some Melbourne visitors arrived, at the same time as they were knocking on the door the phone rang. “Judy this is Owen Casson, can you bring Dick back in straight away.” Sure Owen I replied, but some visitors have just arrived from Melbourne, can we have a cuppa with them first? I asked. “Tell the visitors to go and get Dick back in here right away ! he ordered. “Wow this must be serious”, I thought, so told our visitors to make themselves at home and I would be back later.

Dick was admitted to hospital and put on an intravenous drip of very strong antibiotic.

He didn’t respond so by morning he was sent to intensive care in the Sale hospital, some 150 kms away. By the following morning he was in a coma and on life support, his heart, lungs and kidneys all having failed. The doctors told me to call the family together as they were not hopeful he would pull through this.

I left the farm to spend the next three months travelling backwards and forwards to Sale to spend time with my husband, now like a wax model of his former self with 9 drips, intubation tubes, heart monitors and dialysis keeping him sort of alive.

It was a difficult year as there was a drought and feeding was an important part of the daily regime. I found the workload too much with travelling to Sale, so to lighten off a little I called our agent and sold all our weaner cattle. Each day my border Collie and I would ride out on the ATV to move cattle and ensure they had adequate feed and water. On one of these routines I discovered a cow had gone down with paralysis and her hip was dislocated after giving birth to an oversize calf. I had to call the knackery man to come and put her down. He drove in with his truck , parked alongside the cow and got out with his rifle. The first shot went right through his truck tyre, missing the cow altogether. I couldn’t believe what had just happened but it did.

I was running out of feed so knew I’d have to move some silage bales from one paddock. This was a job I had never done before but with help from a neighbour to attach the silage grabs I managed to clear all the bales from the paddock.. Neighbours and friends were wonderful during this time, helping out with chores and meals.

After several weeks in a coma Dick started to recover quite amazingly, but a lot of people had been praying for him. After three months and some rehab he returned home but still very weak. He wanted to look around to see what had been happening on the farm during his absence on one day soon after returning. I was out with my border collie on the ATV doing some weeds.

Without any warning the bike flipped over and I was pinned underneath it. My dog kept running back and forth up to the top of a hill where she would bark frantically for a few minutes then return to check on me. The tenants in one of the houses saw her but just concluded that she was simply behaving a bit strangely.

When darkness fell Freisia stayed with me keeping me company. By this stage I could no longer feel my right leg at all but I felt no pain. Eventually my husband and two young men who were staying with us at the time found me. Their first instinct was to take the bike off, then they called the ambulance. I said before I felt no pain but when they took that bike off my back I was engulfed by the most excruciating pain.

My dog was whimpering and confused, I lost consciousness and remember little more after that than waking up a couple of days later in the intensive care ward of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.. So the next bit I have to tell you from what the boys told me.

Freisia was so anxious about me that she wanted to come in the helicopter with me. They tied her up with some thick rope but she bit through that and returned to me. Then they tied her up with a piece of wire so that the helicopter could take off safely.

I was fortunate enough to have the very wonderful Dr Kossman attend me. He was able to save my leg by making a large incision from the buttock to the knee to decompress the nerves. It took some time before feeling began to return to my leg and a good deal of hard work in rehab at Tudor Court. The staff there were absolutely wonderful too.. Three months later I returned home but still not able to walk on my own. I wondered whether my dog would remember me after leaving her as I did.

Will She Remember Me?

She was over excited when I got out of the car. She cried like a child, and her tail just wouldn’t stop wagging. It was so good to be back home and even better just to be with my very wonderful husband and most loyal of dogs.

A couple of years later my dear and very beautiful border collie was run over by a car while we were away. A neighbour hit her and was very sorry about what had happened so he took the time to bury her for me.

There would be no other black and white collie who could replace my Freisia , but when we were at a clearing sale some time later there was a beautiful red and white , male Border Collie for sale. A lot of people were interested in him, but I knew this dog had to be mine, so I paid top dollar for him. Again I have a beautiful dog, that loves to come out with us while we work.

I can’t imagine not having a dog. They are incredibly intuitive, and loving and ever so loyal.

I have almost full feeling back in my leg now and my husband has recovered completely. He works like a 40 year old, in fact I doubt too many 40 year olds could work like he does.

We both thank God for our recovery and our friends and family for their very valued help during this time and I thank God also for the joy of a border collie dog.