I cried over my dog. No, I SOBBED over our dog. Her name is Sugar by the way. Actually her FULL name is Brown Sugar Ulrich. She is the color of brown sugar, so the name fit. We have had her for 3 1/2 years after my friend Liz found her on the side of the road abandoned. She is our first family dog, and the kids loved her from the start.
Isn’t she the most adorable thing you have ever seen!?!
The other day, my son Creed {A.K.A. Wreck it Ralph} hurt Sugar. He jumped off the stairs directly onto her back. She is a Shih-Tzu and a small dog. He is a rambunctious two years old, and I taught him better than that. Oh great, here come the tears again. What the heck is wrong with me!?!? I can’t seem to control my tears. After he jumped on her, she crawled slowly until she found me in the laundry room. Her back hind leg was hurt pretty bad, I could tell. She whimpered a little, but she didn’t whine loudly. Even though she didn’t cry out, I knew she was hurt. I could tell by the look in her eyes. Is it possible that I could have protected her more? Yes, but I didn’t think something like this would ever happen. Ever.
I don’t remember when I made the switch from liking our dog to actually LOVING her. All I know is that it happened along the way. She is the first person to greet me at the door. She is always happy to see me. She sits by me and begs me to rub her belly and ears. She shows her affection in so many ways. She is a great dog.
A few days after the incident, we took her to the vet. She most likely has a cranial crucial ligament tear {which is the equivalent to a human tearing his/her ACL}. The vet said that most likely she will not heal on her own, but we will wait for a bit to find out if she needs surgery for sure. I love our dog. As of now she is on medication to help her and when the meds wear off she limps pretty badly. I feel terrible.
{Update: Although we didn’t take Sugar to the vet right away, we did seek advice from the vet immediately over the phone. We did as the vet instructed and did tests from home to see if her leg may have been broken, dislocated…etc. Since the tests all seemed negative, the vet advised us to “wait a day or two” to see if it started to get better on its own. I am very hurt by the personal attacks this post has brought. I am sorry if I made it sound like she wasn’t given the medical attention she needed. I feel the exact opposite.}
Are you a pet person? I guess I can officially say that I am. I didn’t think that would ever come out of my mouth. Ha!
{Due to the number of inappropriate comments I was receiving that was attacking my 2-year-old son, I am moderating comments on this post. All comments of this nature have been deleted permanently and future comments have been disabled.} If readers would like to discuss this post with me specifically, you can e-mail me at allthingsthrifty at gmail dot com, however, I will not allow negative comments about my children to remain public on my blog. Disagree you may, but this is my policy. Thank you for understanding.
Update: Sugar is doing great. It has been three months since her accident and she is doing fantastic. Her leg is completely healed, and she can jump and play just like before. Thank you to all of the concerned readers who emailed me on her behalf. She is a huge part of our family, and we appreciate your love and concern that most of you expressed.