Trauma Trauma Trauma

Oh, how could I forget to tell you about Ernie's near-death experience?

So the night of the fishing trip we bunked at mom's again. (TV whores that we are) :)
We left the "kids" in the house for a bit to walk across the street and setup a table at the ministry expo for John's work/our church. I think we were gone like 30-45 minutes.
When we returned, the kids were not in the living room and all was quiet. The bedroom door was also closed. I thought they had gone in the bedroom and somehow shut themselves in on accident. We opened the door and I panicked.

Ernie was gasping for breath, standing so stiff, and the whites of his eyes were complete blood. Eby was right next to him, her mouth open at his neck/ear area. I thought she was biting him or something. I bent down to find that Ernie's collar was stuck in Eby's teeth and that had made it so tight around his neck that he was literally about to suffocate. At first I tried undoing his collar, but I couldn't get to the clasp. I screamed for John to "get a knife". The collar was so tight around his neck I didn't know if we could get a knife in it. Thankfully John ran back with scissors and slid them right in to cut Ernie free. I think I started crying immediately. Eby ran under the bed and when she came out half of Ernie's collar was discarded there under the bed. Poor poor doggies. We have no idea how long they were like that. But, it was long enough for Ernie to poop on the floor he was so freaked. I can't imagine how they were struggling to get apart before they got stuck in the bedroom and gave up fighting. Of course Ernie was trying to get away from Eby, only making the collar tighter.

But as soon as we cut them free Ernie ran around and was wagging his tail like nothing happened. Poor guy- he looked like a demon dog for about a week- with red replacing the whites of his eyes. Even know there is still a pink tinge, 2 1/2 weeks later.
It did wear the poor babies out. They cuddled on the couch all night, barely moving. Not so new for Eby but very unusual for Ernie. Anyway, needless to say they are now collar-free. And I am looking for the perfect leather collars. That should be much safer than nylon weave.
Wish we could've gotten a pic of Ernie's eyes. But he wouldn't give us the right angle.

Anyway, the mood of the night was drastically altered. To think what could've been if we'd have been gone 2 hours. What an awful sight we would've come home to. That would've been really really bad. It also made me realize how attached I've grown to our "kiddos." And 2 dogs dying in one month just wouldn't be fair.

But- all is well now. And they still aren't afraid to play rough and bite at each other's necks.