doggie love gets expensive

For the past couple of weeks Ernie has not been himself. The once highly energetic, enthusiastic and expressive dog has become depressed. And for good reason. In his joy and excitement sometime this month he pulled something in his back right leg. The vet examined him a couple of weeks ago and prescribed some pain killers and told us to ice and heat his leg once a day.

The problem with pain killers is just that, it kills the pain. And with Ernie, that was all he needed to feel 100%. He immediately started being his normal endearing crazy self. He began jumping with joy for breakfast and dinner, spinning 360 degrees in the air before landing again just long enough to bounce off the floor and do it again. He also began his usual sprints along the fence with the neighbor dogs. Paul and I tried everything to stop him from being active so he could heal.

Two days ago we decided that Ernie needed to feel the pain so he would calm down and rest his leg. We stopped giving him his pain meds. Ernie felt the pain. He began to walk with three legs instead of four, holding his right hind leg out to the side. It was terrible to see. But he finally began to lay around the house and we were hopeful that he would recover soon.

Today I came home from bible study around Noon and the house was quite. I wasn't greeted by a dog. Very unusual. I walked around the lower part of the house quietly, thinking maybe he was doing something bad and I would catch him in the act. When I didn't see him downstairs, I made my way up the stairs. To my horror, there he was, in my guest room with piles of poop all over. I couldn't help but yell his name. ERNIE!

Ernie knows he is not allowed upstairs and has always obeyed the house rules. He had never gone to the bathroom in the house before and I knew there was something wrong. He looked ashamed and scarred of his impending punishment. I chased him down stairs. To my horror he ran down the stairs with only three legs, making me feel terrible, peeing all the way down. Not only did he pee down the flight of stairs but he kept peeing down the hallway, thru the dinning room, into the kitchen and to the back door, where he was quickly escourted out. He needed no other punishment than that.

After I disinfected my stairs, which I consuled myself by saying they needed to be dusted anyway, and cleaned the guest room carpet and yelled some frustrations out as I vacummed (I feel that vaccuming makes things cleaner. It made me feel better anyway), Ernie went to the vet. Over six hundred dollars later we found that he has further hurt his leg, probably when he was on the pain meds, and has tour his ACL, requiring surgery.

It has been hard to see him in such pain tonight. He is on lots of medications and is kind of loopy. But he knows he is loopy and seems freaked out by the fact that he doesn't feel right and can't walk straight and frustrated that he can't run, which up till now has always been his favorite thing to do. It's amazing to see that a dog can experience such emotion. He wanted to snuggle more than usual tonight, probably because he was so traumatized by all the sudden change in his life. Paul even let him on the couch with him which has always been forbidden before.

Continue to pray that God will provide for us financially so we can give Ernie the care he needs and for all the other housing needs (we need a new roof. but that's another story). Pray also that Ernie would be able to be himself again soon as it's hard to watch him be so miserable.