When it Rains

They say when it rains it pours or that good or bad things come in threes and I have to say right now I believe both. This is going to be a post full of bad news so if you are full of Christmas spirit and happiness you may not want to read much further so it doesn’t bring you down…

It all started about two weeks ago when Michael came home and said that things were not going well at work and he didn’t know how much longer he was going to have a job. He’s been with this company for 18 years. He has been pretty devastated to say the least and very grouchy because although his boss said he can’t run the company without him and he would be the very last to go he is very worried about his coworkers who are also his friends. This is not a good time to be unemployed no matter what field but especially in the construction world. We make the decision to start saving as much as we can, not exchange Xmas gifts with each other and do whatever we can to take precautions for going back to one salary.

Fast forward to this week when we take Sadie our puppy to the vet, and then decide we need a second opinion from a specialist and on Wednesday find out that she needs knee surgery right away not on one knee but both knees. They schedule the surgery on the left knee for the NEXT day. It’s $3500 for one knee. The next one has to be done as soon as the first one heels in about 6 weeks. And during the heeling she has to be confined to a crate, wear one of those God awful collars, and take all kinds of medications. She has to stay overnight in the hospital and boy Thursday night in our house is awful without her and I couldn’t wait to pick her up on Friday.

And then we get to Friday, I get out of work and rush home to meet Michael so we can go get Sadie. The day just seemed to drag by! I get a call when I am about 20 minutes from home from Michael saying that his truck just quit and he is waiting for AAA to come give him a tow. He has no idea what is wrong with the truck and it’s about 20 degrees outside and he’s freezing. 3 Hours later he is still not home. We finally get Sadie home at 7:30 last night! Still have no clue what is wrong with the truck or how much it will cost to fix it.

Sadie is resting right because she just had a Codeine. She’s not happy that she is confined to her crate but she has to have very limited movement for the next 6 weeks. Her whole back leg is shaved up to her back  but the incision is only about 4-5 inches so it’s not too big. She has wagged her tail a few times which is a good sign but you can tell she is in pain because she whimpers once in a while. She hates the collar and when we have to put it on her she gets so sad it makes me want to cry. I hate to think we have to do this all again to the other leg. Poor thing, she doesn’t deserve this at all.

Oh and if you are still with me, this is all caused by a Luxating Patella. It’s also known as Trick Knee. Mostly common in small dogs but also starting to get more common in larger dogs such as Golden’s. And it’s Genetic. We have contacted the breeder because from the research we have done he should stop breeding the parents immediately but he wants more proof from us. There were 11 puppies in Sadie’s litter and we have no idea if any other pups have shown any issues but I hope not.

So if you made it through all that you really are a true friend and I thank you and ask for one more thing, a few good thoughts for Sadie’s fast recovery!

Thanks for reading!