Annie, Annie, Annie

Upon agreeing to get a dog Bill and I had a pretty good understanding of it's just a dog. If anything big (as in $$$) was required we would probably just let her go. Yeah, we had NO clue.

Bill is Mr. tough guy and still tries to pretend that, "she's just a dog", but behind all that "muscle" is a lot of heart. To bring in the new year and new determination to exercise regularly Bill and Annie have been running together every morning. It's funny to see what a big effect it's had on Annie. When Bill leaves for work in the morning she lays by the front door and whines for a little while, and when he gets home she cannot get enough of him. They love to wrestle together and Bill is the only thing that can get her to bark. They really go at it. He'll do body slams and "punch" her and flip her around. She really gets goin'. It'll be interesting to see when her muscle more fully develops what she'll be able to give back.

Saturday night, Janurary 9th, this routine wrestling match was underway when Bill did his customary body slam on Annie and we heard a "crack"! Instantly Annie was yelping and wouldn't put any weight on her right fore leg. I quickly called the vet as Bill was yelling, "I broke her leg!", Livi was bawling and Aaron was trying to "see". By the time we were able to get through to the on call doctor she seemed fine. We took it easy for the rest of the night(see pic above). Bill was real upset at the thought that he may have broken her leg and we decided that perhaps we should look in to pet insurance after all.

Well, Bill left Sunday morning for a quick trip to L.A. and Annie was sad. She wasn't eating much and her energy level wasn't quite the same. Bill came home on Tuesday and while they started their running back up Annie's appetite just wasn't quite right. We feared that she had swallowed something that just wasn't coming out this time. (So far she had given us back 8 socks "forwards" and 2 socks "backwards".) Friday morning she threw up while whining at our bedroom door and then threw up breakfast... not easy to clean shag carpet! (Yeah, gross.) That was it, she was going to the vet. Something wasn't right. (I had flash backs to the penny stuck in Livi's throat for 5 days when she had just turned one.) Pet insurance hadn't come soon enough.

The vet took some x-rays and couldn't exactly tell what was in her stomach but could definitely something was in there. (Bill was curious as to whether or not it showed a broken leg. It didn't.) We decided to do the surgery. (We could've done a barium scan but that would've been an additional $600. So we opted to put that cost towards the surgery, throw in the spay and be done with it.)

One small fistful of "debris" (aka: rocks, sticks, and mystery white foamy substance), a check for more than our mortgage payment and 3 days later we have... a big puppy (38 lbs to be exact) attached to a "collar of shame".

While Annie was in the hospital many prayers went heavenwards from our sad hearts. Tears trickled down my cheeks at the overall "experience", Olivia bawled and Aaron did his hysterical fake cry. I had to calm Olivia down and explain that I wasn't scared that Annie would die, I was just sad that she had to be away from us, and I was sad at how much money it was costing to have Annie taken care of. I explained to the kids that we would just have to be more careful how we spend our money over the next couple of months until we can get back what the surgery cost. Olivia said, "Like maybe not have so many birthday presents?" I said, "Yeah. Maybe Annie could be one of your presents this year." Livi smiled really big. She liked the idea. She turned to Aaron, who was sitting next to her at the island eating lunch and said, "Aaron do you want Annie or lots of presents for your birthday?" Aaron, without missing a beat, responded with a full mouth of sandwich, "I don't want Annie. I want lots of presents. Annie bites me!" I was so caught off guard I almost lost my own mouthful and Olivia started to cry even harder. (I can't help but laugh at it now as I'm writing this. Oh Aaron.)

We all visited with Annie on Saturday. Admittedly she was happiest to see Bill. I got teary eyed... again and promised to come see her Sunday before church. (Seriously, what is this dog doing to me? It is just a DOG!)Sunday, I got to the hospital in good time as she was just coming back from her morning walk. (I.V. and all.) She looked really good. Everything was set for her to come home on Monday. When we picked her up from the vet's it was almost comical the amount of emphasis the doctor put on "NO ROUGH HOUSING!" (They obviously remembered the broken leg call.)

While Annie was gone there was a definite tranquility in our home. That, coupled with the lack of flying fur, made for an enjoyable weekend. But Bill agreed, that it just felt like something was missing.

It was really good to have Annie back home with us. It's hard that she can't go running with Dad for 10 days, we are definitely feeling her energy level hitting all time highs. It doesn't help that Dad's gone and it definitely does not help that it's been raining all week! A very over energized dog + a very obtrusive elizabethan collar makes for a lot of bruises. Even the once teary eyed Olivia asked,"Could we just let her stay at the hospital 'til she gets the cone off?" We'll make it through. Annie is actually beginning to be quite talented with her cone. She will drop her bone down into it, swing her head in large circles so that the bone is spiraling inside of it and then fling her head up in the air catapulting her bone across the room; where she then proceeds to pick it up and do it all over again. (I will say, it is quite pathetic to see her trying to scratch behind her ears when all she is scratching is the cone.)

1.) Annie trying to get close to Aaron. 2.)Annie didn't think she was close enough so she decides to sit on Aaron. 3.) Aaron surrenders his chair to Annie but not before long Annie is lying on Aaron on the floor. 4.)Aaron is proud that Annie can no longer "get to him".

This sequence of events has happened before, to Olivia. Olivia didn't find refuge in the laundry basket. She ended up sitting on Annie's pillow with her.