April 10, 2012

White Dog forgot and scrambled to sit higher in my arms. "OWWW!" I yelped. "Be careful!" She twisted around  see my face and I winced again. ""Sorry, forgot." She buried her cold nose against the angry hot skin on my neck, and the pain lessened.

Our Easter Picnic had been delightful and we had found a lovely shaded table to set up as a base. What I hadn't noticed was that the dappled sunlight, across the afternoon, was baking my face and later, my neck. It wasn't until bedtime that I began to hurt and realized I was cooked.

Being very fair skinned, I have learned to wear long sleeves and sunscreen; even to don a billed cap. But Sunday, for some reason I was lulled into a false sense of Spring time protection. Oops!

Upon this discovery and as a reaction to Steve slathering me with After Burn, the White Dog Army took sudden great interest in my condition. Steve said it was because I smelled like roasted meat. I prefer to think the gentle sniffs and cheek kisses were nursing efforts to make me feel better. I had to take off my glasses so that White Dog could smell my eyeballs; I was allowed to put them on again only after she made a note on my chart.

Monday the WDA demanded frequent neck checks and I received sad head shakes and nuzzles after. Apparently, from their perspective, all of this could have been avoided if I had only been born with a healthy double-thick coat of fur. To top it off, I suffered from the symptoms of too much sun: achy head, dehydration, and upset tummy. The White Ones made sure I rested, drank lots of water, and ate sparingly (they "volunteered" to eat most of my lunch sandwich so I would not overtax my system).

Today I am still sore but pretty much back to normal, EXCEPT I have begun to peel. Steve finds great irony that momma with her pups all blowing coat, now is losing her own skin. 

White Dog grabbed a crinkly former piece of my forehead off of the pillow this morning and puzzled over it for several minutes before (don't, please, I begged) putting it into her mouth and eating it. Then all of the others thinking she had been given a special treat demanded THEIR piece. "I am NOT pulling off pieces of my face to feed you...not my neck, either...you are all so GROSS!"  They looked at me like I was being wasteful and walked off to see what else they could find to nosh in the carpet.