Shadow Wrought's Journal: Zack

So the Kauai trip has come and gone. Kauai is a beautiful place and I very much want to go back, the trip itself was difficult. On our second full day there we got up early to watch the sunrise. We went to a quiet little beach and watched the Sun erupt through a layer of clouds and burst across the lapping waves- while someone stole our backpacks out of the Jeep. The rest of the day was spent talking with police, insurance, and credit card companies. *sigh*

That was Thursday. Then Saturday night we got a call that our dog had hurt his leg and had to be taken to the ER vet. He had dislocated his ankle, and would need to see the specialist Monday morning. He was hurting and anxious, and were 3000 miles away over the Pacific, trying to have "fun." All because he jumped for a treat and landed wrong.

Turns out the thievery was nothing compared to Zack's injury. Dislocated ankle, bone chips, and a torn ligament needed surgical repair. So we came home early, which the blessed travel insurance we got will help assuage, but Zack is a hurting puppy-dog. He's got four pins in the leg and two metal bars supporting them so they can support his joint while it heals. He's an active, sweet border-collie/lab mix who loves to be loved and to run. He's getting plenty of lovings, but he's not going to be running again until late September!

The brace will hopefully come off in 6 weeks, but it could take as long as 8. Even then he'll only be able to walk, and we'll have to keep him on a short leash even then. To keep him from hurting it further, we have to kennel him at night with one of those cones around his head (which he's already managed to slip off twice!). He looked at me with those dark eyes wanting to know what he had done wrong and it near crushed my heart. Even though he's the family's dog, he is very much my little puppy dog, and all I can really do to help him is keeping him from doing most of the things that he loves. Big *sigh* here.

So, here and there I'm going to catch up on the other happenings, and one of these days I'm going to convert the notes I took on Kauai and publish them here. It really is a special place, and would that we could have seen it without the emotional weight we carried.

sorry

[zogger]

really sucks when one of your pets gets hurt. We have one of ours, the second youngest, starting to go limp/paralyzed in the rear. She was the fastest best doggie too, the one that jumped in and bit righteous @$$ on the wild pitbull pack that attacked us before.. She's a mutt, half ozzie shepherd and half dalmatian, so I don't know if that is perhaps any of the normal hereditary things that afflict some purebreds or not, and we just don't have the budget for extensive vet analysis on those sorts of things.

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[Shadow Wrought]

Its hard to only be able to do so much for them. Even though you're giving them a much better life than what they were looking at, you still want to do all you can for them. We're lucky enough that we can absorb the financial hit. It still hurts, and its going to affect us for months, but we can swing it. I know dalmations are prone to various things, but I don't know about the shepard. Usually mutts tend to get a free pass from the genetic misfortunes of purebreds, but not always. I hope she gets bet

Wow, sorry to hear about the stress

[nizo]

Still, a stressful few days in Hawaii beats any number of good days at work :-D

I am hoping to take the oldest somewhere fun for a few days this summer while the SO and the munchkin visit her family (and go to Disneyland no less; I just don't have the heart to tell the oldest about it). I miss the ocean, but I don't know if I have the time to go. Still, any day now I am going to be so uncool to the oldest, I gotta form a few good memories with her now before I become Mr. Embarrassing :-|

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[Shadow Wrought]

Indeed. Just remember that you're going to have far more years with 'em after the teen years than before and during. They may not appreciate it now, but they will when it matters;-) Where are you going?

As for Kauai, well, I think I really might want to move there one of these days. It'd be several years out, but I really did like it.

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[nizo]

I dunno where; I would love to see the ocean, but I think time/money may rule that out. But hell even just cruisin' around the southwest would be fun. Or Vegas maybe, hmm... It is much more kid friendly these days. Plus now she would appreciate displays like the Venetian more :-D And the shows would be fun.

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[Shadow Wrought]

How old is she again? You could try and do a trip to San Diego. Warm Ocean and it is close to Legoland...