Reading about Beryl's situation reminded me of a very painful situation I ran into some years ago. While I was living at home in MN, we always had a houseful of dalmatians. It was when our Rob was a popular stud-dog, we were specialing Morris and had several Rob offspring. One, late cold January evening, as so many times before, I took the houseful outside to the dog area after dinner... Must have been 5 dogs (we only did that many in the dark as we lived in the city)... The weather was cold (about 10 I think), the sidewalk was icey and the dogs were in a hurry to get in... I, of course was out in jeans and a sweatshirt, but no jacket as I was only going to be out a few minutes.............. so I thought.. As I let the dogs in, I decided I would run with them - several a head, a couple behind and I thought they would just run up on to the deck (like they had THOUSANDS of times before, but noooooo... Not this time... We had a liver bitch named Sally Brown who decided that she was going to the basement entrance and instead of going around me, decided in midstep to turn around, cut me off and run to the side of the house.. I was half way up the steps and slipped, fell backwards on the ice. There I lay............ cold.......... dark........ but not lonely as I knew there were at least four sets of eyes staring down on me... "Mom, what are you doing on the ground?" As I lay there, I remember thinking... I must be dead... There is no way I survived this... I only remember my feet slipping off the steps, rolling under the stairs and landing flat on my back on the cold, hard, icy concrete. Slowly, I tested each painful appendage - first my feet, then each hand.. Then that ever painful experience of sitting upright - which was made more complicated by the now excited dalmatians covering me in kisses. I remember crawling up the deck steps and across the deck and pounding on the patio door... It hadn't occured to anyone inside that something might be wrong... until I showed up looking beaten and abused. When I got in the house, I tried to explain my situation and only got a bunch of laughter... I think I was still swearing under my breath at Sally too. To this day, thanks to that fall (and numerous others), I see a chiropractor.. I love dogs, but ............................ Jess Mac Paisley Dals (www.paisleydals.com) & The Shepherd Girls _________________________________________________________________ Peek-a-boo FREE Tricks & Treats for You! http://www.reallivemoms.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM&loc=us ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2007. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - www.showgsd.org ============================================================================