The Door is Open

Our First Selfie

On occasion, Lila, our dog, seems to think that going in and out of doors is a form of entertainment. There are times when she likes to slumber next to a tree or inside some hole she’s dug but other times, as soon as we let her out, she wants to come back in again.

Warm weather going ins and outs are different from cold weather going ins and outs. In the summer, when we let Lila out in the backyard, we hook her up to the leash that’s tied with rope around the big oak tree. We end up leaving the patio door open, so we can run in and out quickly. When Lila is ready to come back in, we’d unhook the clasp, and she’d run lickety-split into the house.

One early September night, I got back into the cold weather going ins and outs habit. I closed the patio door on my way out to get her. We decided to turn the heat on because the temperature inside got down to a cool 64 degrees. Over the months, Lila forgot about the cold weather habit of mine. After I unhooked Lila, I heard a thump, as Lila fell, when she tried to go through the door. 😭 Thankfully, the door did not break.

Lila was stunned. I immediately thought of stories about people running through glass doors, so I was concerned. I opened the door, and Lila walked in. Yes, she was definitely stunned. When I sat on the floor with her, apologizing several times, petting her fur while hugging her close, she sat still taking it all in, which is unusual. Lila is not one to cuddle. That night was the most she ever let me cuddle her. She even let me look into her mouth. She showed me her straight bite. All of her teeth were evenly laid out, as usual. Her face felt fine. No bumps. I had no idea how she was holding her head when she hit the door. Her head might have been pointing downward, but there were no bumps anywhere on her head. Lila is one who likes to cry and moan when she’s not feeling well, and we were relieved she didn’t cry or moan that night.

The next morning, I mixed half a can of dog food with half of her dry food. Lila was so happy to have a different meal. She went back to visit her food bowl several times to make sure she didn’t leave any crumbs behind. Lila ate canned food mixed with the dry for a couple of days. Everything else worked fine from head to toe. 🙂

Now, when she gets ready to come back into the house, she stops to make sure the door is open. Sometimes she lets us go through first, just to be sure. We’ve been leaving it open now, during comings and goings, no matter how cold the days or nights get.

A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of. ~Ogden Nash