Skip is dead; was it the dog bisbuits?

Last night, before drifting off to sleep, I heard on CNN Headline News that Ol' Roy Multi-flavored Dog Biscuits had been recalled as part of the growing scandal over poisoned dog food.

I've been feeding my dogs the Ol' Roy biscuits for years, and it just so happens one of my three dogs died unexpectedly on Wednesday night. His name was Skip. Sometimes it was Skippy. But I'd gotten to where I called him Skip most of the time.

Skip, pictured above last summer, was only around 11 months old. He was part poodle/part golden retriever, as best I could tell. He was always full of energy and liked to patrol the fence line of the backyard and fetch the Frisbee.

But Skip hadn't been himself for about two days. No energy. He wouldn't come up to greet me when I went in the backyard. This began around Monday, or maybe the day before. On Tuesday, he was pretty much the same. He wasn't eating anything and was lethargic.

On Wednesday, he was the same, and by Wednesday evening, when he stood up he appeared wobbly, kinda like he was drunk (not that he'd ever been drunk, of course), so I resolved to take him to the vet right then and there.

I went out to the driveway and took out 11 of the large paving stones I had bought that very night for a flower bed I was building, to make room for Skip.

Then I heard one of the other dogs, Charlie the Poodle, barking with urgency, and I immediatley thought, uh-oh.

I went to the backyard and there was Skip, dead. His body was still warm and his eyes were open.

I buried him that night in a shallow grave in the backyard. When we let Charlie and Max the Bassett Hound out in the backyard, they sniffed around and started pawing at the ground where I dug the grave. I put a patio chair and a big wash tub on top of the plot to make sure they wouldn't dig up their old pal.

We were in shock. We hadn't been feeding our hounds any of the dog food we had read about in the recall stories.

But then, like I said, the news about the Ol' Roy dog biscuit recall hadn't come out yet.

This morning I called the vet's office and told the story. The lady who answered the phone hadn't heard about the Ol' Roy recall.

Of course, I don't know if the Ol' Roy dog biscuits caused Skip's death. And I don't even know if he died of kidney failure, which is what's killin' the dogs and cats whose deaths have been linked to the tainted food.

I asked the lady at the vet's office if they've been getting any complaints about pets dying, and she reluctantly said, yes, a few people's dogs have died of apparent kidney failure in recent days.

But she was quick to say they don't know what caused the deaths, since the food in question would have to be tested and the dead animals would have to undergo a necropsy.

Yeah, I realize that, I told her.

And I don't guess you analyze dog food at your office, do you, I asked.

She said no and suggested maybe somebody in the state government does that sort of stuff.

What arm of state government would you suggest I call, I asked.

She said she didn't know.

Now, of course, I'm wondering about Charlie and Max. Charlie's not real big on consuming the Ol' Roy dog biscuits. He takes em and hides 'em most of the time, I guess as sort of a security blanket in case he doesn't get something better to eat, which always seems to happen eventually.

But I know for a fact that Max has eaten some of the Ol' Roy biscuits in the last few days cause I've watched him. So far, Max seems OK. So maybe it wasn't the dog biscuits that did in Skip. I guess we'll never know.