My younger sister has two dogs. Luna’s a basset hound. Molly is a border heeler (border collie/red heeler mix). Molly’s a dog who’s afraid of a lot of things. She’s scared of any other dog, except Luna. For some reason, she thinks that Luna’s going to protect her. Let’s just say that Molly went on a walk once without Luna, and when two tiny dogs came near us, Molly got so scared she peed and then ran.
She’s scared of most people other than members of her family. She’ll avoid them at almost any cost.
Molly is afraid of water that’s not in ice or snow form. This is bad enough that when she got a new water dish, it took several days to convince her to drink out of it instead of eating snow and ice off the deck.
Yet She Can Be a Fearless Dog
Molly has many other fears, but she can also be a fearless dog when it comes to some things. She’s seriously protective of Luna when people that she doesn’t know come to the house (perhaps a bit too protective at times). Grrrr, don’t you dare even say my sister’s name. Molly will jump off the deck (or just about anything else) and go flying for several feet. She does not seem at all concerned with getting hurt. She’ll weave over, under, and through things with no regard for her safety.
And Then This Happened…
While Molly is afraid of a lot of things, she’s also super hyper. When she’s around people and animals that she’s comfortable around, she’ll run, jump, and act a little crazy. This was the case last Tuesday evening.
Molly likes to play this game where “her humans” lay on the ground, facedown with their hands under their bodies. Molly will then run over, nose her way under your body to get to your hands, and then happily either lick the person or shove her nose deeper until she’s basically shoved her body underneath the person.
Apparently, this was not the game Molly wanted to play on Tuesday evening. I laid down on the floor, ready for the game, and Molly ran toward my head. When she collided with my head, she kept running and running and running, like nothing had happened.
The collision didn’t bother her, but the side of my head, just above my left eye hurt pretty badly, and within a few seconds, it started to swell, forming a pretty nice goose egg on my forehead, and it was clear that that was going to be bruised. After icing it, the swelling wasn’t as intense, but over the next few days, the bump morphed into a very colorful bruise, which expanded, making it look like I now had a bit of a black eye. Minor headaches and soreness throughout the week have also accompanied the injury.
*The bruising isn’t super clear in the picture. If you can’t see it, just trust me that it’s pretty colorful.
What I Learned
While no one mentioned it, I’m sure that some people saw me at church yesterday and wondered what happened. I hope they didn’t think someone had beaten me up. It was just the dog, and it was an accident. There were a few takeaways from this experience.
- Dogs have harder heads than humans. After my head was aching, I wondered why Molly didn’t seem to react at all to the collision. I looked up some information online. Apparently, dogs have thicker skulls than humans, so a collision like the one that I suffered didn’t bother Molly as much as it bothered me.
- Even little creatures can cause serious physical pain. For a time, I thought that I might have a concussion (I’m still not 100% sure that I don’t have one), and I imagined what a visit to the doctor would look like:
So how exactly did you get this concussion?
A dog ran into the side of my head.
Oh, so it was a big dog? Saint Bernard?
No.
Mastiff?
No.
Great Dane?
No.
Husky?
No.
I give up. What kind of dog hit you in the head?
It was a border collie/red heeler mix.
(Confused/judgmental stare from the doctor)
She’s a tough dog. (Me completely justifying the situation)
Oh, I’m sure she is. No judgment here. (in a tone that makes it clear that the doctor is completely judging me and then mumbling to themselves) Isn’t that about 25 or 30 pounds?
- There are different types of tough. This could be the spiritual lesson from the story. Some people are physically tough. Others have inner spiritual or emotional toughness. Just because someone seems weak or scared in one area doesn’t mean that person (or dog) doesn’t have strength in another area.
- There’s no end to the number of ways that I can injure myself in embarrassing ways. Most of my more serious injuries have involved a story that seems ridiculous and that gives other people a reason to laugh at me.
