Vacation, Doggie drama, and misc ramblings

Well, we made it to the Hosier Cousins reunion at Estes Park and back relatively unscathed. The plane trip to Denver was very uncomfortable for John. Fortunately, it was under two hours. The trip home was a little better because we figured out a way to get his head up some and keep him from scooting so far down in the seat. We had had a pretty bad experience with Frontier Airlines when we flew to Denver for Jennika's wedding, so we were all apprehensive about this trip flying Frontier. I will have to say they did a much better job, but as far as airlines go, I'm still a big fan of Southwest. They are much more accomodating, and their personnel are more helpful and friendly.

Now for the doggie drama. I found a "bargain" petsitter out in Cedar Park. We have two dogs, Dixie and Pidgeon. Both females. Both Type A, Alpha female dogs. For the most part, they tolerate each other. Every once in awhile, one of them feels put upon by the other, and a fight breaks out. Blood has been spilled, but most of the time, they actually seem to like each other. I knew, however, that this could be a problem if other dogs were brought into the mix. I found this dog sitter on Craigslist. I spoke to the owner and her husband, explained at length to both of them the importance of keeping our dogs separated from one another. No problem. I was assured over and over that the dogs would be kept separately and be well supervised. The girls have been kenneled before, and there's never been a problem, so I didn't anticipate a problem this time. Boy, was I wrong. Saturday evening I got a voicemail from Mr. Trotter informing that Dixie had been severely injured in a fight with Pidgeon. He recommended putting her down. After several calls to the vet, and with Trotter, we made the decision to wait until morning to see how Dixie was doing. There didn't seem to be significant blood loss, but there was concern that there could be muscle or tissue damage to her neck. When I spoke to the vet on Sunday morning, Dixie was up and about in her cage, and responding to the vet and the technicians. I'm not going to go into a lot of details since we intend to take legal action against these people in small claims court, but a word of warning...cheaper is not usually better, and avoid Triple A Petsitters in Cedar Park at all costs!