Luck

Do you ever think it’s funny how life works out?  I don’t mean the make you laugh kind…I mean the absurd, can’t believe that just happened to me kind.  Today, we get home from spending time with family and we go to check on our dogs downstairs.  One of them has to stay in the crate while the other one can sleep on the little couch without any issues…usually.  For whatever reason, he must have decided to investigate this bag I had downstairs hanging on a door handle. It was one of those reusable totes and it was empty.  My daughter calls me to come quick and I see that the dog has decided to commit dog-icide while we are away.  I have no idea how he did it, but he had wrapped his neck in the bag handle so many times I don’t know how he was still alive.  Really???  What were you thinking dog?  I get him untangled and he seems to be fine.  He is a lucky dachshund.

I begin to ponder how many times he has had close calls.  A few years ago, his back went out and we had no idea what was happening.  He couldn’t move his back legs and his back froze up all hunched over.  I was terrified as I love this damn dog way too much.  We ended up taking him to an emergency vet, on the weekend no less, and spending a lot of money for the young vet to tell me he couldn’t do anything for him as he needed surgery.  We took him to our regular veterinarian, and spent more money for them to do tests.  Once this happens, you have a 24-48 hour window to get your dog fixed or it could be paralyzed.  I was flipping out and crying like a mad woman.  Seriously.  Very sad sight.  So, my husband agreed we could take him to the surgeon.  I won’t tell you how much a back surgeon for a dog costs, but my dog is like the bionic dog.

He comes home with his cone of shame and he is all shaved and on medicine and I just sit with him while tears flow down my face.  These are happy tears.  He is so out of it he has no idea, but he seems to like his mom sitting there.  He is a beautiful long-haired dappled dachshund, which is kind of rare in the dachshund world.  We called him Mr. Handsome.  Now he goes by Mr. Expensive.  Anyway, a few weeks later I notice him limping after everything he has been through, so I start to panic.  Oh no, I think, it didn’t work.  He is still hurt.  I freak out and try not to, but if you love your animal, you understand.  I find a rubber band around his paw somehow as his fur and the rubber band blend together.  I know immediately what has happened, but I also know that my baby loves this dog as much as she can.  I calm down and ask her if she was trying to beautify Duncan (his real name).  “Why mommy?”  Because I found a rubber band honey.  Oh, I did that when I was umm three (at the time, she just turned four).  I explain to her that it hurt him and he has to go back to the vet.  Stitches to fix his hurt paw.  Sigh.  We were lucky I found it in time.  You don’t want to know.  Considering I checked him over every night since his surgery, it couldn’t have been there long, but somehow I missed it.

A few months go by without incident.  One day he comes hobbling up the steps.  I ask my husband if he looks like he is walking okay.  You see, by now my husband thinks I am paranoid, but if you had seen this poor dog when he couldn’t move, you would understand.  I go to inspect his hindquarters again as it looks painful to me.  I find the strangest round mark and it is raised.  Something is not right…I just know it.  Off to the vet we go.  His skin had started dying around a spot.  It was probably a spider bite.  Are you serious??  Necrosis of the skin had started happening.  Well, they say things happen in threes, whoever “they” are.  I’d like to slap them three times if I knew who “they” were, but anyway, all in all, my dog is probably worth the price of a small car.  Or at least a trip to Europe.  I wouldn’t trade him for either, but sometimes I wonder about the kind of luck we have had.  On the other hand, I realize we have caught everything in time.  So in truth, just because you think you are having a string of bad luck, doesn’t mean you really are.  It is all about perspective and I have to keep reminding myself that daily.

In order to keep a true perspective of one’s importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.  ~Anonymous

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