Back in the Saddle!

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned...it's been 61 days since my last blog post.

If only you could imagine what the last 60 days have been like.  But that is for another day.  This update is going to be entirely about Mr. Mooney and his recovery. 

I want to thank everyone who sent their well wishes to us both.  Mr. Mooney say "Woof, Woof, Woof" to all of you.

I know that the last think you heard was that Mr. Mooney was paralyzed.  It happened on June 17, a Friday at 5:00 p.m.  I had stopped by my mothers to visit and give Mr. Mooney some "riding in the car time".  You see, I am planning on driving cross country to Key West, by myself and with the pup.  However, the pup, isn't real experienced in riding in the car.  He gets in and he is all happy and about 10 minutes into it, he has had ENOUGH! Then he gets down in the floor board and he starts scratching the carpet trying to get out.  And then he starts turning around and around and around and around and just won' stop.

So it's 1225 miles from my house to Key West and the pup needs some travel experience before we go. So that is how we ended up at my mothers.  (She live about 20 minutes from my house.)

I had decided to leave Mr. Mooney to visit with my mother while I went to run some errands and he was too stressed to ride around.  I told my mom I would be back in two hours and when I walked in the door, she says to me "I think you need to come check on your dog,  he leaned up against the sofa and just plopped down".  Usually, he comes running when I come in the door and this time he just sat there with the saddest look on his face.  I went over and tried to get him to stand up and he had no strength in his hind legs.

I immediately began to panic.  It's 5:00 on a Friday, what vet is going to be open now?  And if they are open they are going to charge me exorbitant fees for a Friday night emergency.  So I'm pacing around the house, trying to figure out what to do.  I've never had anything like this happen.  I had no idea what to do.

Then, in the middle of this I get a phone call from my oldest daughter and I told her I couldn't talk, we were in the middle of a family emergency.  She said "Oh, never mind then."  This is something I have never heard her say before and I could tell by the tone in her voice that something was really wrong.  I took a deep breath, sat down and talked to my daughter.  I didn't have the heart to tell her about Mr. Mooney, especially is she was in the middle of a serious problem herself.

She told me that she had just gotten the results from her doctor and may be diagnoses with a life threatening illness.  Literally, I felt like the world was crumbling around me.  I spent the next 15 minutes talking with her and reassuring her that I would do anything I could for her and if she needed me to fly out tonight to be with her I would. Ultimately, we decided to wait and see.

While all of this was going on, I was racking my brains trying to figure out what to do about Mr. Mooney.  It came to me that there was a new, giant sized, 24 Hour Animal Hospital that  just opened across town.  I called them and let them know we were coming and picked up Mr. Mooney as gently as possible and put him in the car. 

We to the the hospital and the line was out the door.  But because of Mr. Mooney's condition (and the fact that I had called ahead) they took us immediately. 

Poor Mr. Mooney at the vet, before his treatment.

Look how sad he looks! They took him away for x-rays and blood work and I just waited in misery in the waiting room.  Thank goodness Mr. Mooney has doggy health insurance.  We have never used it before, but it is good that it was already in place.

Turns out that Mr. Mooney has a pinched nerve in his back on the last two vertebrae before his tail.  There is no telling how he got it, but the doctor assured me that it could have been something that was on going.  Mr. Mooney's favorite sport in the world is running down the house stairs, through the house and running up the VIP deck stairs by the pool and back through the house chasing his cat Lady Le Grande Bouche!

The Vet tech said I should get him to the specialist and have back surgery on him as quickly as possible and made an appointment for us on Monday at 8:00 a.m.  They gave his some painkillers, muscle relaxants and steroids and sent us up with the directions to keep him caged.

I went home and as soon as we got there he jumped out of the car and went chasing a neighborhood cat across the yard.  He was running as fast as his two front legs could carry him and dragging the rest of his body.  I was screaming at him to stop and crying and I felt sooooo sorry for him.  He didn't know he was paralyzed.

For the next three days we just sat and worried.  He wouldn't eat or drink and couldn't go to the bathroom by himself.  He was waking up in pain every hour and a half and I was exhausted.

Continued tomorrow...