Bluebird

Warning: This is not related to fitness, weight loss, exercise, etc. It will be long. It will be 100% about my dog(s). You have been briefed.

I'm already crying as I type this. Let me give you a spoiler so you aren't grief-stricken unnecessarily. Our dog is okay. She is going to be okay. It's just been a hard day. If you have ever read one of my posts, you have undoubtedly seen a picture of our dogs. If you're a newbie here to my blog, feast your eyes on this amazing display of cuteness:

Go ahead, take it in. I'll wait. I can hear all of you "awwww's" from here in Sugar Land, Texas. Well, the dog to the left, the gray and white one, is Bluebird. My husband was never allowed to have a dog growing up. We always had a dog so I knew the joy that they bring to your life. When we got engaged and moved in together (gasp!), I decided it was time that he knew the same joy. I had Lola already and he had fallen in love with her. She is an American Pitbull Terrier. And she is an angel. So we go to the same place where I got Lola and started the search. We knew she was the one when we saw her. I mean, just look at her:

Heart. Melted. She is also an American Pitbull Terrier. And she is also an angel. When I say she's an angel, I mean she honestly does not do anything wrong! She sleeps when we sleep. She plays when we want to play. She wags her tail constantly and is always so damn happy. It's unreal. The two dogs love each other so much. I know people get carried away with their animals. Maybe we are "those people" to some. But to us, especially until we have human babies of our own, they are our babies. When we got these dogs, we signed on to be responsible and take care of them, giving them a happy, fulfilled life. Today, we were thrown a curve ball of a large proportion.

Bluebird started limping Monday. We weren't all that concerned. They play rough, it happens. No biggie. Well Tuesday, she wasn't walking on that leg at all. I went to work and had been in touch with our vet and planned to take her in Wednesday, today. I got up today and got to Dayton, my hometown, by 8:00 A.M. sharp. We took her back, got her weighed and waited to sedate her in order to get an x-ray of her leg/hip.

She was such a brave girl. They put her on the table and she wagged her tail until the anesthesia hit her. They took the x-rays while she took a nap. Then my vet said, "Oh Sarah, come here and look." The news wasn't good. Her hips were bad, and had been bad since she was a puppy. We just never knew. Dr. Hall said on a scale of 1-4, 4 being the worst, her hips were already at a stage 4. Bluebird is only 4 years old. Other than this, she a healthy and happy dog. She never whimpered or let us know that she was in pain. So I said okay, what do we do? Well ideally, she needed a hip replacement. That is $10,000.00. We do not have that. So, the alternative is this other surgical procedure where they basically go in and manipulate the ball joint and socket of the hip to better fit back in place. They do one leg at a time, $800.00 a pop. A blow to finances? Sure. More do-able than ten grand? Absolutely. Unfortunately, our vet doesn't do orthopedic surgery. So, we were sent to Dr. Willcox in Groves, Texas. 

We get there and get called back. He has the picture of the x-ray sent from Dr. Hall and agrees that this hip surgery is our best option. It won't necessarily extend Bluebird's life, but it will improve her quality of life dramatically. And the best part, she will no longer be in pain. Anyway, he starts feeling around her bad leg and says "hmm, wait a minute, what's that I feel"...well, let me tell you...she has a torn ligament in her knee-think of a human version of a torn ACL. My heart sank. I took a deep breath and said okay, okay, now what? Surgery still, yes. An $1,800.00 one. Yowza. I kind of laughed that crazy laugh...you know, you're so distraught you don't know what else to do so you laugh. And I said some bad words, I'm sure. But, I knew what had to be done. So here's the run down: knee surgery, recover, hip surgery 1, recover, hip surgery 2, recover. Happy, healthy dog. Broke, responsible owners. We're looking at a grand total of around $3,500.00. Oh yeah, we're also building a home. Perfect timing, right? WRONG!

Anyway, that's the plan of action. I was talking with the vet, Dr. Willcox, about how Bluebird is such a gentle, mild-mannered, docile dog. I explained how she is happy just laying by us, getting pets all night and cuddling. He said to me "Sarah, after these surgeries you are going to see her real personality. She has been in pain her whole life with these hips. She hasn't wanted to lay around with you. It hurt too much to do anything else." I. Broke. Down. I cried and cried when he said that. I've cried the rest of the day because of it. Our sweet dog has been so strong and concealed her pain all 4 years of her life. 

Her surgery is tomorrow. I get to pick her up Friday afternoon. If you're the praying type, please send one up for our baby. If you aren't the praying type, that's okay too, just please think happy thoughts for us. We are putting all of our trust and faith in God. If we are true believers, everything is already planned out and only He knows what the outcome will be. We have to just believe that He knows what the future holds. 

Thanks for reading. I'm sorry it was so long.