Yesterday morning, after her walk, Ella went out the back door to sit on the deck and watch the world. Both Laura and I are prone to taking pictures of Ella at the drop of a hat, and when Laura saw her lying flat with her muzzle down on the deck, she had to grab the camera and snap a few from different angles. Ella didn't move.
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Some minutes later I heard the most pitiful and forlorn yip from the deck. I cocked my head. I heard it again and this time went running. Ella was still lying belly-down on the deck. "What's the matter, girl?" I asked, standing over her. She just yipped again (not her normal bark by a long shot) and rolled her eyes up at me desperately. Her body didn't move.
That's when I realized she couldn't move.
I crouched down. The dog license that dangles from her collar had gotten stuck between two slats of the deck; she was effectively yoked down by her neck and couldn't get up. I couldn't really get my fingers under her to get the license unstuck without choking her, so I started trying to unbuckle her collar. Of course, the pressure on her neck got worse as soon as I started working on it, and that's when Ella started struggling and thrashing hard. I tried to hold her in place while I fumbled at the catch on her collar, but she wasn't having any of it. I had to tell her sharply to be still.
Somehow, in the course of those struggles, the license jerked free and she was unstuck. She ran straight into the house, and when I followed her in and sat down to comfort her, she put her paws on my shoulders and licked my face frantically for nearly a minute. I let her.
Later that night, examining the photos Laura had taken, we decided she had probably been stuck there all along. Bad humans for not having caught on sooner.
