A trip to the ER

Everyone,

On Friday, we took Juice out to get his hair cut. Butterfly and I went to go get food. And about an hour later we returned to the house. Totting hot burritos and a lot less hair.

I got into the house first and let Soot out of the kitchen where we keep her when we are gone. She is jumpy and happy as always. I just noticed something red on her foot. I didn't even bother to look at it closely right at first. I figured it was some kind of sticker that was stuck. Then I wondered, "What has she gotten into that a big red sticker would be on her foot?" So I took a closer look.

No sticker. Blood. And lots of it. And a huge gaping wound about 2 inches long and open about a quarter inch. So I scoop up the dog and run outside to Juice and Butterfly, and say we need to go to the doggy hospital. I showed him her leg, and called our regular vet to see if we go there or what. They were closing, so they sent us to the doggy ER about 20 minutes from our house. Address and phone number in hand, we ran off to the ER eating our food as we went.

Can I just say that it's a great thing to have a doggy ER but boy are they sad places. We got there and hung out for about 20 minutes in the waiting room while more emergency cases were moved to the back. It was a small waiting room, and there was a very chatty lady in there with her teenage daughter. Her dog was in because she had a fever for days and antibiotics weren't taking it down. A few other people came with nasty cuts, a dog fight victim, a loud pathetic sounding cat, and a dog they were putting down for reasons unknown to us.

We were there almost 2 hours. Butterfly was a great little girl. The loud cat entertained her to no end. First the kitty was talking to her, and then the kitty was singing so she danced around. Then the kitty was whistling (no idea where that one came from). We rearranged all the fliers they have, and read a few of the free magazines. The whole time she was asking, "Where Soot?" or popping up with "Soot has owie." She is so cute. Towards the end, we had to take her outside where she ran up and down the wheelchair ramp. I didn't even think to grab her any toys when we left so it's nice to know that she can be entertained with what they have in the office.

Soot ended up with 3 staples in her leg, and a huge pink bandage and a lovely for her head. She is SO FUNNY with this cone on. She keeps running into corners and just stopping because she can't figure out why she is not going anywhere. She doesn't really fit through her doggy door so we have to make sure she gets outside.

A few days later, we took her to her regular vet who pronounced her 90% healed and put a smaller bandage on her. She promptly got it off, so we just left it off. They shaved her down a lot and she looks a little funny still but she is healing. We have to carry her up and down the stairs and she is restricted to short walks around the 'block' until next week when they take the staples out.

Poor thing. We don't even know how she did it.

Safire