My mother used this expression for a close call. I always thought it was an odd image, and it reminded me of the skin on top of cooling cocoa. In any case, my dear old Border Collie Maggie just missed poking her eye out yesterday by the skin of her teeth. And once again it's all my fault. I had picked up a lawn sign on my way home from the dog walk on Sunday night and left it on the floor in the back seat of the van, metal feet pointing toward the door.
Yesterday morning without thinking I opened the door and told Maggie to hop in, which she did. A little yelp was all she gave as the metal stick scraped her eye. It looked to be just on the white of the eye and not on the cornea, and thankfully that was the case. But the vet had to put dye in her eye to check as it was so very close to the edge. She's feeling better today with the antibiotic ointment the vet prescribed. But I just keep thinking of what we would be facing if the stick had gone into her eye. We missed that trauma by the skin of our teeth.
My dad used to say the same thing. I hope Maggie is ok.
ReplyDeletePoor Maggie - and poor you, too. I can imagine the relief you felt. I love your image for 'skin of our teeth'. That was a saying in our family, too, and I used to always wonder where the skin was.
ReplyDelete