At work today I hospitalized a very sick Pointer. He was so sick that I didn’t expect him to live through the night. He could hardly stand. When he did stand he was incredibly wobbly. His legs were swollen and he is skin and bones and very dehydrated. I also couldn’t get the thermometer to register his body temperature.

I was just telling the staff person that I expected that he would not live through the night when a macaw wandered by. Yes, this is the kind of place where things like that happen. The hospital’s macaw gets bored and occasionally climbs down from her cage/play area and comes looking for someone to entertain her. Is it safe? No. But so far she’s shown enough sense to only do it when there are no unfamiliar dogs out.

So, the macaw wanders past the pointer’s cage. Then she stopped, turned, and screeched at him. This dog, who is on his last legs, gathered up all his strength and got up and pointed at the bird.

Everyone came to watch. He would stop and just look at her for a bit. Then when he was feeling strong enough he would point again. It was a very wobbly point. I was a bit concerned that the macaw was going to kill him by using up the last of his energy. But hunting seemed to perk him up. He kept looking at us with an exasperated look that said, “Oh for the love of god! Someone shoot the @#$#$% bird!”

He was downright perky through his treatments and even scarfed down some food. Hunting makes you hungry I guess. Maybe with that kind of will he’ll be able to pull through.