What a roller coaster ride Chami took us on. Bob is back, again, after coming home shrouded in sadness Sunday night only to get a call Monday morning from a park ranger telling us they had found Chami. She had wandered into a campground fully ten miles south from where she had strayed. The night before she got lost Bob hadn’t been able to get her to walk more than a few hundred yards to the ocean jetty. Her hips and arthritis seemed to be getting the better of her. How then, did she walk ten miles in 95 degree heat?
Bob left immediately to get her, though the campground hosts who were caring for her encouraged him not to hurry since they were enjoying her company so much. Chami is just one of those incredibly smart loving dogs that knows how to communicate with folks on human terms so most people come to adore her pretty quickly. Plus she has reddish blond ears the texture of velvet that beg to be stroked.
Bob had planned to spend the night after collecting our girl and surfing some, and I encouraged him to do so since the waves were still good. Instead he just felt compelled to bring Chami back to Aspen Ridge Ranch for a family reunion. About 2 hours from home he got too sleepy so he and Chami spent a warm, star spangled night camping along the Umpqua River. Now, we are all back together.
We are worried about our Golden Girl. She doesn’t seem dehydrated, though she defiantly lost weight, but she is rather dazed, not quite all together, and she can barely walk. She hobbled a few feet to the edge of the river to sleep, the wobbled her way to the cabin or her dinner bowl, but she is traumatized at the least. Although Chami has the most advanced communications I’ve ever seen in a dog, she’ll never be able to tell us what the hell happened. I’m so glad to have her home but it is such an emotionally draining time with her right now. Bob and I cried and worried so much on Sunday night, had a wake for her, said good bye. Yet, neither of us could really grieve the way we wanted to because we never even knew if she was dead. Now she is home and obviously sick. Did she go off to die after all then changed her mind? It may be that it would have been best for her to let go of her body and let her soul fuse with the Oneness of All. I hate to think of the suffering she went through, and may continue to go through. We are going to go to Bend as soon as we can see the vet. Perhaps then we’ll figure out what is going on.