Skipper
Tina and Skipper
In 1988 I was diagnosed with a condition called Basilar Artery Migraine. The disorder causes me to lose consciousness except that I can hear what is going on around me. I cannot speak, move, or see during an episode. One day I was alone in our house while a furnace repair man was in our attic. I returned to the kitchen to continue cooking when I felt an episode coming on. I turned off the stove and went to the family room to lie down in a recliner until it passed. Instead of lying down on my left side as she always did, I felt Skipper lie down on my right side, closest to the stairs where the repair man would soon walk down. I could hear the repairman touch the entrance hall at the bottom of the steps and I heard him yell, "OK lady, I finished with your furnace". I couldn't move, of course but I could hear the man stepping toward the family room. I felt Skipper become really firm and suspected that she knew we weren't in the best of circumstances. Again, the man bellowed, "I said that I finished with your furnace". He had taken 3 steps on the marble entrance hall and was approaching the step down into the family room, Skipper was sitting up next to me. She was rigid. Finally, the man stepped into the room and Skipper leaned over the arm of the chair and growled a growl that left no doubt as to what she was prepared to do. The repairman lost no time going out the door, mumbling ok, ok, I'm going. After the door was shut Skipper lay back down next to me and remained there as always until I was able to get up myself. She never left me. Not for tempting food, a child coming home from, school, a new chew or anything else. She seemed to sense her role as my protector and my best friend.