Our baby's sick ...

Scott and I have lots of animals. It's a joke among our friends and neighbours that we live in a petting zoo. The neighborhood kids love it! I won't name all our "children" here, but three of them are dogs - Weimaraners. The oldest two (Stoli and Kitty) are 10 years old, the youngest (Kali) is 3 months. Kali is at the age where she just loves testing her boundaries, especially with the other dogs. So, once in a while she gets a warning bite from one of the Big Dogs. That's part of owning a puppy, and we know from experience how to take care of those wounds.

We don't know if that's what happened, but she got some sort of puncture wound on her right front leg, probably earlier this week. We didn't even see it at first, and it didn't bother her. It ended up getting infected, so I called the vet yesterday and arranged to bring her in this morning. It ends up she has an abscess deep in her shoulder, and had to have surgery today. It all came about pretty quickly and we don't really know how it happened. So of course, we feel like horrible dads. She's home now, with a big ol' collar around her head (which she hates), a big shaved patch on her shoulder with a drainage tube sticking through it, she's in pain and crying and doesn't understand what's going on, and we can't do anything about it except stroke her muzzle and sing softly to her and feed her pills and keep her from scratching at the stitches and at the tube. Ugh. I hate this. Luckily Scott was off today (and he worked in a veterinary clinic once), but the next few days are going to be rough. Carrying her outside to do her business (she weighs 38 pounds already and of course we started our rainy season TODAY), keeping her on schedule with her pain medicine and antibiotics, hot-compressing her wound, and hoping that I don't have to eat or use the bathroom during the 11 - 12 hours a day that Scott's gone. Call me Nurse Diesel.

And of course, Scott and I are emotionally (and financially) drained by this. She's our baby, and to see your child in pain and not be able to really help - it's heartbreaking. I think she may just taste bacon for the first time tomorrow.