I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Philip absolutely loves to fetch balls. As soon as he spots a ball on the ground, his eyes light up, he prances to it, grabs it, and drops it at my feet, nudging me and hinting at the fact that I really need to throw it.
Once I have the ball, he is ready to run! He usually takes off way before I throw it - any slight motion of my arm sends him full speed ahead in the anticipation of the throw. It's pretty funny to fake a throw and watch him run out, realize I'm not actually letting go of the ball, and come back to give me a very dirty look.
I think these kinds of games caused Philip's latest behavior - as he is running ahead, he looks back at me for the first several steps, probably to ensure that my arm is continuing the motion that should turn into an eventual throw. Of course, this means he isn't looking where he's going!
So yesterday we had a little mishap because of this, and Philip earned himself his first play-injury:
See those dark spots underneath his eye? That's where he has a scrape and is missing some fur. Now for the story of how it happened...
We were playing fetch in a friend's yard, and as Philip took off in anticipation of a throw, he ran straight into a wooden pole. Of course, he was looking back at me, so he ran into it with the side of his face, and at full speed. The sound that came from the collision made me cringe and hiss as if I was the one that hit the pole (as a matter of fact, my friend was sure it was me and asked if I was ok!). Philip didn't even stop to think about what just happened, he simply stepped to the side and continued running ahead, waiting for the ball.
Now, we all know that dogs can take a lot more of such injuries than we humans do, so seeing as he didn't even make a peep, I figured he was just fine. After all, this isn't the first time he ran into something. I did take a quick look around him, but didn't see anything. I noticed the missing fur underneath his eye only when we got home an hour later. I checked all around his face, and in his eye to make sure there were no other damages and all looked good. As a precautionary, I put a little eye ointment in both of his eyes and decided to wait till morning. Thankfully, all is still well!
My guess is that he instinctively closed his eye lid as he hit the pole. I can't even begin to imagine what would have happened if he didn't! I'm still watching him very closely, ready to go to a vet if any swelling occurs, and checking his reaction periodically. Everything is looking good, and will hopefully stay that way. I think I'm being extra paranoid, especially considering that a local Corgi just had a pretty bad eye scare a couple months ago, and his owner mentioned that it could have been due to an impact of sorts to the eye.
