To catch you up, here's a brief flashback:
We adopted a hound/shepherd mix puppy in January whom we named Daisy. She found us at a Burlington County Animal Alliance dog adoption day in a South Jersey Petsmart, after being born as part of an unwanted litter in South Carolina last June. With a pitstop in Maryland over Thanksgiving and a trip to New Jersey after New Year's, she's well travelled for such a young girl. She's sweet, a bit shy, and exploring more and more every day.
She loves to run. She may have some greyhound (or Plott hound) in her, as she's the fastest dog in the park. Or was.
On Sunday, she was playing a lively game of fetch/chase with some other dogs when she overshot the ball and stopped short to turn on a dime, then came up limping. With a smile on her face, she stopped and looked at me as if to say "ok, let's go home."
As she hobbled home, I suspected she had stepped on a rock or glass, but she wouldn't put any weight on her right hind leg and refused to climb the stairs to our third floor brownstown. And there was nothing visible in her paw, but I did notice that her foot was swelling.
Matt was two and a half hours away when I called, and it was tough to tell him that Daisy was hurt and I needed him to come home ASAP to help me get Daisy to the Penn Vet hospital.
Sunday was tedious. Waiting for Matt to get home. Watching Daisy and hoping that her leg would miraculously stop hurting. Googling too many things and trying to forgive myself for throwing the ball that led to her injury. Nothing was in my control.
When Matt got home, we carried her down and went via Zipcar to the University of Pennsylvania animal hospital. The vet brought us back, listened to me recount our morning, and said immediately that "it sounds like she tore her knee ligament." Uh oh. I thought she may have sprained an ankle or broken a bone or something. But a torn knee ligament. Yikes. A torn CCL (comparable to an ACL in people) requires surgery in medium-large dogs like Daisy. And we learned that there is a 30 - 60 percent chance that she'll tear the second CCL in the future, compensating for the other leg or just because.
While we waited to take x-rays and consult with the doggie orthopaedist, we bonded with our fellow waiting room pet owners who were all in tough spots. Pet emergency rooms are emotional places. There was a good vibe, for the most part, but it's tough to confront our pets' mortality so suddenly. We're lucky, as Daisy's problem can be fixed. Others weren't so lucky.
Someone reminded me on Monday of this quote: "Don't count the days. Make the days count." So that's what we're doing, one great day at a time.