There's a lot to write about! I feel like I haven't been this genuinely interesting a good few months, but I'm super tired right now and don't want to sit here writing for who knows how long.
I guess the most important thing (in my little world), is that my dog Elf (Elfie, Mimis, Elphaba, + all random nicknames), is having (another) surgery this coming Monday. I didn't actually write about the first since we took her to the Vets unexpectedly. Basically her face had swollen up on one side and her face was literally distorting itself. Very scary. Turns out she had a cracked/impacted/broken tooth in the back of her mouth that had pierced the skin and an infection had formed. We also pointed out a cyst growing on her neck. We had just taken her in a few months prior for a check-up/blood work and everything had turned out fine, but our vet said if we didn't remove it, overtime it could become dangerous.
So last Thursday Elf had a tooth pulled, and a cyst removed. The recovery time is supposed to be two weeks: no hard-food, no rough-housing, no scratching, pain meds once a day, anti-biotics twice a day, and we had to check her stitches around the clock.
While coming in from outside on the 3rd, our other dog chased Elf (bad dog), and to get away from him, she tried jumping onto the mattress I moved into the front room so I could sleep by her in case anything happened... and her pudgy little body didn't make the jump with our other dog right behind her. Instead, the ligaments in her left hind leg snapped completely.
In 2009, the same thing happened to her right hind leg. It's apparently very common in active dogs, especially the smaller breeds. And Elf being the most ridiculously hyper-active Jack Russell Terrier, has completely shot both of her legs.
The surgery is expensive and has a two month recovery period. And I'm worried about so many surgeries right after the others, but the Vet said it shouldn't hold any problems for her. She's getting old, and even though I hate thinking about it, I'm very realistic about her health and life expectancy.
JRTs live on average anywhere from 14-16 years old. Elf just turned nine. I don't think of her as a dog, but as the puppy I got way back when. And as silly as it sounds, she's my girl... and I suppose unless you're a pet owner, you may not understand that. JRTs are notorious for picking out one person in their 'pack,' and making them their person... She gets along with everyone, but hates it when she can't see me or can't immediately find me when she comes in from outside. She won't eat if I'm gone, waits for me by the door when I leave, and will wait patiently in the bathroom while I shower. She's slept with me almost every night for the last nine years. So while this is physically exhausting for her (and it really is, poor thing), I'm emotionally overloaded. I just want her happy and healthy and healed as quickly as possible.
Luckily they've given us an extra bottle of pain medicine for her and sedatives to keep her from trying to use her leg too much. She just sort of lays in her cage like a lump, unless we take her outside for a five minute break, or eating soft foot with a glucose pilled ground up inside it.
But ugh, she looks like she's being tortured and to a degree, I suppose it must seem that way to her. She's been in nothing but constant pain for who knows how long with her tooth, and now she's stitched up with a leg she can't use, and will be stitched up and confined for another two months on top of all that.
It's just frustrating.
Prayers and positive vibes for my girl would be appreciated. =)
