I'm A Little Worried About My Sweet, Sweet Juno

You remember Juno, right? Our half-lab, half border collie mutt we rescued as a tiny pup, after she was dumped out at my mom's rural home, nearly starving to death.

That's her baby picture, the day we brought her home. I think she was about to lose consciousness! So sad. We soon fattened her up.

Put her on a weight-training program!

Here she is, lifting her barbell. Which enabled her to grow into the glossy specimen below.

That's Juno in the foreground, with our black german shepherd Ann, who disappeared the day after we had a crew here putting a metal roof on the garage. Not that I'm pointing fingers... As you can see, Ann has an egg in her mouth. I took that picture for evidence, since Farmer H blamed Juno (of the silky coat) for eating eggs as fast as his hens laid them.

Anyhoo...my Sweet, Sweet Juno is now 7 years old. She's a little stiff in her back right leg, after too many jumps off the porch, I think. But she runs along with Farmer H and the Gator, even though (formerly known as Puppy) Jack and Copper Jack exclude her from their frolics. They're a younger generation, both in their 2s, the age Juno is in the picture above. If Copper Jack stays at his legal home next door, our Jack will frolic with Juno. His favorite tactic is to jump on her and torment her until she gets up to chase him, then he bites her tail and she has to drag him while trying to run away. She's been a healthy dog, our Juno.

When I left for town on Saturday, Juno was the only fleabag to greet me. I petted her as normal, and gave her some cat kibble. When I returned, all three dogs took off across the front yard/field as I piloted T-Hoe down the driveway. They jumped off the back of the concrete carport to chase squirrels, as usual. Jack circled back, under the porch, and Copper Jack and Juno came around the end of the carport. That's when I noticed something was amiss.

Normally, Juno gets to the porch first, to wait first in line as I leave the garage through the people door. She demands her petting, and the first dole of cat kibble. She'll wait there on the side porch until I deign to leave the garage. Jack runs into the garage, sometimes stopping the closing of the garage door while playing around under it, and waits for me to open the people door to let him out. Copper Jack stands at a respectful distance, looking at me with mistrust while I unload groceries, then goes around to wait on the brick sidewalk for his cat kibble.

This time, Juno was out back, behind the garage, with Copper Jack and little Jack. She sidled over to me, and put her head near my knee. Of course I reached down to pet her. She had been walking slowly, kind of listing to one side. I saw that her right ear was kind of folded down. Flipped back, maybe, like when dogs romp around, and it gets turned kind of inside-out. I reached down to flip her ear over, and saw that it was swollen as thick as a hamburger! I barely touched it then, and Juno whimpered. I left her alone, and she started around the garage. She doesn't like to walk through.

Coming out the people door, I could see Juno at the bottom of the steps. It was like she wasn't sure she could walk up them. She did. Slowly. Like her balance was off. I petted her some more, keeping my hand away from her ear, mainly comforting her and letting her know that I could tell something was wrong. Yeah. I'm sure she understood every word of it, and I did not sound at all like Charlie Brown's teacher.

I sent Farmer H a text as he was closing up his Storage Unit Store. He said he'd take a look at her. Juno had other ideas, and wouldn't let Farmer H near. So later we bribed her out of her dog house with a piece of cheese wrapped in meat (expired). Her ear was still swollen. She kept shaking her head. Farmer H and I discussed taking her to the vet on Monday if she's not better. Farmer H thinks maybe she has ear mites like this cat.

Dusty had them several years ago. The vet gave us medicine, with instructions to dose all of our fleabags, since they transmit ear mites to each other. We did. It seems odd to me that such a malady could strike Juno now, in the space of one hour, while I was in town.

I was worried that she might have smacked the side of her head on something, crushing part of her ear. She's always whacking her head on the stair rail, spinning quickly to cut off Jack from my reaching hand. She also turns quickly elsewhere, hitting her head on a car bumper or the Gator. She's a bit skittish, and used to tear around the yard at a high rate of speed, ripping up grass with her toenails in cut-back turns.

I also worried that Jack might have bitten her ear to hang on in a game of chase. Or that Copper Jack went after her for snarling at him. He grows bolder as she grows older and less tolerant. Farmer H first thought maybe a snake bit her. We'll see how it goes. Juno DID go over to the BARn with Farmer H and his buddy, Buddy. So she's able to move around, if perhaps not so comfortably.

Like Farmer H said, it will be a two-person adventure to get Juno to the vet. We don't have a pet carrier her size since she's fully grown. Farmer H used to take the bigger dogs in his truck, riding on the passenger side floorboard, tied with a leash to the door handle. I don't think that's a good idea with skittish Juno. You don't want her to end up on his feet while he's driving!

We'll see how things go.