Poor Rowdy

For those of you who have never met him, that little guy to the left is one of dogs, named Rowdy. Rowdy is a rather unique dog. You'd just have to be around him for awhile to really understand what I mean. He's just different.
I have to share a story about Rowdy that was not really funny, but one of those moments that I could not hold back the laughter.

It happened two days ago. Those of you who live in the mid-west know first hand that we have had some pretty rough weather for several weeks. Rowdy has just decided that he is not going outside. (You get the idea.)
Add to his disdain for the cold, the fact that Rowdy has been absolutely depressed. We got him just about the time Daniel left for college last fall, so he never got to know him too well. However, over the month long semester break, Rowdy became very attached to Daniel. Ever since Daniel left to return to school, he has be so depressed that he lays in his cage where he sleeps at night, all day long. He turns his bed inside the cage upside down and crawls underneath it and will stay there for 7 or 8 hours and not come out. He really is depressed. In fact, when Daniel came home to visit last weekend, he picked Rowdy up and he commented that he could tell that Rowdy had lost weight in the week he had been gone.

Anyway...
Tuesday morning Rowdy retreated to his cage as Ashley left for school and stayed there all day. I had been gone for a few hours and when I came in, he was still in his cage so I tried to coax him out. I figured he surely needed to make a trip outside to do what dogs do. He did not want to come out. I literally had to pull him out of the cage. I took him to the door and he tried to bolt back to his cage. I yelled at him to get outside, he stopped, looked at me, and made another dash for his cage. I screamed for him to stop, and he put on the brakes, and slid across the hardwood floor and into the wall. His turned and started back toward me and the door, with his tail tucked under and his head drooping. He stopped and looked at me as if to say, "Are you really going to make me go out there?"
I opened the door and slowly he walked out, down the steps and sat down on the sidewalk, as if he was protesting and simply not going to do his business. Now mind you, it was 6 degrees outside, and very windy. I shut the door and made him sit there.The test of wills was on.

I went about doing the dishes, occasionally looking out to see where he was. More than 10 minutes passed and he never budged. I opened the door and he started up the steps. I put my foot in front of the door and told him he was not coming in. He gave me that pitiful look of his, and once again dropped his head and tucked his tail and went back down the stairs. I told him about 4 times, "Go potty!" Finally he ventured out into the snow, circled round and round then back and forth for literally another 5 minutes, pausing every few seconds to see if I was going to open the door. Finally he stopped and peed. He stood there and looked at me like, "Now?" I figured maybe he did not have to do the other business, and I opened the door and called, "Rowdy come!" He sprang to life, tore out across our yard full tilt and tried to jump to clear the steps in one bound onto the porch... (Notice I said "tried to jump"?)
There was one small patch of ice on the sidewalk no more than 4 inches by 3 inches, and this poor dogs front feet hit that ice just as his rear legs pushed to jump, sending him flying neck first into the bottom step! I mean, he hit is hard! He fell into a heap on the sidewalk and shook for a couple of seconds. I thought he'd broke his neck! I went out to get him and he was just gasping... and (I'm trying to be delicate here) he literally knocked the poop out of himself! (Yes, literally!) I could not help it, I laughed so hard I was crying. And the stupid dog apparently thinks that I did this to him, because he is mad at me. Ever since then, he will have nothing to do with me. If I call him, he runs the other way. If I walk into the room he is in, he heads across the room or even out of the room. Somehow in his doggy mind, I am at fault for this. Of course there is one exception... if I am offering him a bite of my food... he will gingerly come over to me and take the food, but as soon as he has it, he is gone.

I think I've lost a friend.