3-Legged Walk

Thursday night, about 10 pm, Daisy and Mia ran full bore out the doggie door to confront an intruder into their territory, probably the little white fluff-ball from down the street as it wasn't yapping like the little yapper a few more houses down. I heard a yelp from Daisy and, after about 30 seconds, Mia came thundering into the bedroom, barking at full intensity. She was upset and wanted me to come with her: NOW!!

Picking up a flashlight after strapping on my knee brace, I headed out behind Mia, who raced around the back of the house. Daisy was curled in a ball at the edge of the fence that separates my house from the house next-door. She was softly whimpering, so I leaned toward her and asked her what was wrong. She looked up at me with those big, brown cow eyes and actually allowed me to pick her up, something Daisy never does. I carried her into my bedroom, set her gently on the bed, and asked her again, "What's wrong, Daisy?"

Apparently, she hurt her leg, the one she curled up tightly against her body. I stroked her, wrapped her in a blankie, and settled in. At 10 pm, there's nowhere to take her, so we just had to get through the night. I couldn't see anything obvious, such as a snake bite, a cut, or a gunshot wound, which Mia had several years ago. Daisy spent the night curled up with me, trembling.

In the morning, she barely moved, so I called the vet's office when it opened at 8 am and scheduled an appointment for later in the day. Daisy spent the day either on my lap or curled up in the blankie next to me on the couch. When I set her down outside so she could go potty, she kept her injured leg curled up tightly against her body.

I should have taken Daisy to my former ortho surgeon because the vet had a hell of a time holding onto Daisy, much less examining her, then he concluded that he "wasn't seeing" what I was seeing, she was fine, and these things have a way of working out all by themselves. Really. So the trip wasn't a total loss, I had the vet give both dogs their shots and we left the office in a pouring rain, Daisy's leg still curled against her. More couch time followed our return home.

This morning, for the first time, Daisy put the leg onto the floor, briefly, and scampered toward the garage door: she wanted to go for her morning walk. I tried to reason with her, but when she limped around a bit, proving to me that she was ready for her leash and a walk, I got the girls ready and off we went. Daisy limped a bit at first, but once she started using her leg, she seemd to be okay. She did curl it back up by the time we were heading into the home stretch, but she does just fine on 3 legs.

The moral of the story is that I paid $150 for the dogs' shots this year because the vet was no help at all with the hurt leg. She's still favoring it a bit, but I guess it'll work itself out, the same way that my knee is "as good as it's going to get" and I have to learn to adjust to what is, not what I want it to be.

Always another lesson.