For a dog owner, there are few things that induce a feeling of dread more readily than when the dog starts behaving as if it’s in distress. One couple was in for a surprise when they took their pup to the vet because they’d grown worried that their dog had developed a heart condition based on her behavior after their routine lakeside walks.
Bessie Smith is a Border Collie mix that started walking very slowly and panting hard any time she left the water’s edge at the lake to return to the car. The behavior struck fear into the hearts of her owners, 70 year-old Gene and 60 year-old Susan Jaworowski, who decided to take her to the vet and get her checked out.
The vet gave her a thorough going-over, including doing several blood tests. Once the tests returned their conclusive results, the vet sat the owners down and gently explained to the worried pair the condition from which their dog was suffering:
Bessie Smith was dragging her paws because she didn’t want to go home.
The couple, who are residents of Fort Collins Colorado, were relieved, and then immediately felt foolish. In a letter they wrote to Newsweek detailing the whole adventure. Bessie started displaying the odd behavior during her second year with the couple. Their normal routine had them going down the hill from the parking lot to the lake, then throwing sticks for Bessie, who would swim out into the lake to retrieve them. After a few days of this routine, Bessie started dragging her paws when she hiked back up the hill to the car. Susan and Gene started to wonder if they weren’t working Bessie too hard, and that perhaps she had a bad heart.
It cost them $150 in veterinary bills to discover that the condition that Bessie was suffering from is technically known as “moping,” and that the pup was just hoping to delay her departure from the place where she’s happiest.
