When we said good-bye to Peanut, Dr. Wolf told us we might see some changes in Chica. Since Peanut was such a dominant personality, with him gone, she might start coming out of her shell a bit. Well, she has come out of her shell in ways we could never have imagined.
Easter started out great in the Cedeno house. We got up, watched a few episodes of Friends on TBS, and made a great breakfast of pancakes and sausage. It was a beautiful day and around Noon we took Chica for a walk around the block. At the end of our street we met a pitbull. There was a small incident because I allowed them to meet eye to eye instead of butt to butt and wasn't watching for signs as closely as I should have, but it was all good and after that little roudy incident they were sniffing away at each other and just fine.
As we got closer to home and saw the clouds starting to move in, Alex suggested a trip to Emery Park. When we got there he decided to go to the right side of the park instead of the left. We drove down a hill a bit and parked at the split in the road.
There was a nice trail through the woods and we decided to follow it. Chica was in heaven running all over the place and sniffing stuff. Eventually, the trail started to follow a ravine with a small creek at the bottom. It was lined with snow fencing, but in some places the fencing was down. Alex was getting close the edges and Chica would run after him and then back to me. It was making me really nervous and I asked God and Peanut to watch over her as I was starting to get this feeling something was going to happen to her. My instincts were telling me to put her leash on her, but she was having so much fun running around for the first time in almost 7 months that I didn't want to restrain her.
As we walked along that path, I forgot everything that Cesar has taught me. We approached another area by a shelter where the snow fencing was down. At the bottom of the huge ravine you could see a beautiful waterfall. Alex walked over to the edge to look and Chica followed him, then came running back to me. And that's when I began to visualize her running over the edge.
I took a quick peak over the edge to see the Falls, then headed back up onto the path. Alex started making his way toward the road and Chica was following him. For reasons we'll never know, she turned around and charged the cliff and went over. My heart stopped. I was too far away from her. All I could do was watch it happen and call for Alex. He turned around in time to see her go over and then I just heard the noises of rustling leaves and sticks as she disappeared from view.
I didn't see most of her fall. I saw the last bit where she rolled over and slid head first down the last part of the ravine and onto the slate making up the creek bottom. She laid there for seconds that felt like hours. I thought she was dead. Then she began to move and I thought surely something or everything was broken. She stood up and there was a patch of blood on the slate. She crossed to the other side of the creek and I started calling her and telling Alex to go get her.
I tried to keep the hysteria out of my voice as I made my way down the trail, looking for a way to get to her that I could also use to get her out. By the time I found one, she was already starting to climb back out of the ravine the same way she'd come down, but was sliding back down on all the leaves and dirt. We called for her and called for her and Alex started making his way over to her.
And that's when I remembered what Cesar said about injuries and situations like this. Dogs will base their reactions to a situation on our reactions to a situation. If we get all excited and tense, so will they, and they'll never get over it, like the Great Dane who couldn't go on uncarpeted surfaces because he'd once slipped on some linolium and crashed into something, causing his owner to go running over crying "My baby, my baby..." So I watched my tone very carefully as I called for her and she began making her way over to me, above Alex.
When she did reach me, I did not freak out over it. I gave her a simple pat and clipped her leash on her. I gave her a once-over while I waited for Alex to reach us and the only damage I could see was to her left front paw. It was bleeding in back, but she wasn't limping and, in fact, didn't seem to notice. She went walking back to the car, exploring the whole way, with her tail up and wagging. Could we really be that blessed and lucky? Could her only injury really be a scraped up front paw?!
At the car, Alex checked her for broken ribs to see whether we needed to take her right to the animal hospital or if we could take her home first and clean her up and get a look at that leg. There was no evidence of any broken bones, so we took her home. On the way I told him I thought she needed stitches to close up that leg and after he gave her a bath he agreed.
I called Orchard Park Animal Hospital and explained what happened. They told us to bring her right in. Alex put some gause and tape around it, but she bled through the bandages in no time and was leaving drops behind her.
They took her right back and a few minutes later the vet was out to talk to us. She had a very small but very deep laceration under what I call her elbow pad that would require sutures. She probably pierced it on a stick or something based on the size. He said he'd have to give her some local anesthetic and we could come back for her in a few hours. He told us several times how lucky we were. He couldn't believe she had no other injuries.
Shortly after we arrived home, he called to say he'd finished with her. He needed to put in 3 sutures to close the wound and we could come get her around 7:30. It was the longest afternoon of my life and so wierd around the apartment with no puppies milling around. I took a shower and then made dinner. Alex worked on his homework.
When we arrived to pick her up, the technician went over her meds and care with us. She told us Lila's paw was heavily bandaged and we needed to watch for constriction. We would be able to tell by swelling in the toes and cold paw pads. Then they brought her out...in a giant cone of shame. They said she needed to wear it whenever we weren't in arm's reach of her as she can't go after the bandage or the stitches. At that point I knew I was going to have to take a few vacation days, until the bandages come off. I can't have her walking around in that thing for the next 14 days. She kept catching it on the floor tiles and door jams. So, I called my amazing boss and I'm home with her until Wednesday morning.
At home, I immediately set about boiling up some chicken. She's too finicky about when she'll eat her own food and she needs to eat before she takes her meds as they can upset her stomach. I had three chicken breasts left for her. She ate two of them last night as it's all she had to eat all day besides a piece of sausage and a few bites of pancake, which she surprisingly didn't really care for. After dinner, I had the toughest time getting her to take her meds even with peanut butter on them, but they went down!
As the night went on, she would periodically start crying, so I was watching her paw. It was definitely swelling and felt cooler than the other paw. I called the hospital and they told me to remove the bandage. She didn't want me to at first, she kept pulling her paw away, but after it was off she was much happier and so far has been pretty good about not trying to lick the sutures. Swelling is down and her pad temperature is back to normal as well.
I slept on the floor near her in case she needed me. We did have to go out twice during the night as she drank almost an entire bowl of water before bed and then more later on. And neither one of us got much sleep, but she's better today. I haven't had the chance to look at her belly, but did notice some red marks there briefly last night.
So....lessons learned:
1) When Peanut died he apparently took Chica's common sense with him.
2) Listen to your instincts!!!!
3) Visualization is real-so use it wisely. I should have visualized her following Alex to the road.
4) Remaining calm and assertive saves the day!
5) And most importantly...give thanks and praise where it's due because we are truly blessed to have her with us still with only a small puncture wound to show for her adventures.
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