Greetings From Southern Vermont

Hi everyone.

My first post was submitted the morning of Hurricane Irene and I was talking about what a week I had just been through. I guess it wasn’t quite over.

Mom told me not to worry too much about the Hurricane…it would be just like the rain we had in the spring. I think there were lots of other people who thought the same thing. We live in Southern Vermont.  I am not going to tell you all about…there is so much information in the news about it.

Maggie, my pawrents, Loomis (he’s a big fat orange cat…you’ll hear about him in another post some day) and I didnt experience the damage that so many others did.   Dad couldn’t make it home for two days. I was so excited to seem him…I got to practice my happy corkscrew dance on one front leg. I didnt fall.

Mom told me that it’s good that I am taking it easy this week. It would be too dangerous for me to go to the places I usually like to visit.

Remember I showed you a picture of me and Maggie in the brook? We had a really great swimming hole and lots of big rock piles to climb on.  This is what it used to look like. 

Mom said it doesn’t look like that anymore and that we can’t go down there for ahwhile.  She says that we will have a lot of fun rebuilding the area.
She also said that the rest of Vermont is going to rebuild, especially all the towns around us. She thinks that lots of people have been given an opportunity to grow spiritually. Something about gratitude, suffering, and letting go of attachments. When she was saying that she gave me a very intense look. Not one of those looks that makes my tail droop. Not one of those alpha dog looks either.  It was one of the looks where we just stare at each other … I love those.

I just wanted to share these photos of me at one week post surgery. Marmie (she’s one of my Grandpawrents…she lives with Grandpaw) said that Maggie looks like she is concerned about me. I stole her tennis ball. The only thing that might have been concerning her is that I am feeling better enough to be a pest again.

 I also want to give a shout out to Marmie and Grandpaw’s dog Spirit Tigger.  He was fun to go visit.  He was a lot older than me so he couldn’t play too much.  He died last month.  My Marmie and Grandpaw  really miss him.  If any of the Spirit Tripawds run into Tigger tell him we all miss him.  Marmie would always give us treats when we visited.

 

I am getting around really well.  Mom thinks too well.  I ran down the basement stairs this afternoon…I was supposed to go out the back door.  After I did that, I got one of those looks that can make my tail droop.  I didnt really care, it was worth it.

I also keep trying to head out on my trails.  I am sooooooo bored with walking around the yard.  Maggie told me to knock it off…she has missed out on the hikes and swims also…and she has four legs.  It is going to be so much fun to chase after her again.  Mom said that there will be no hip checks and tackling  for a while.

My Dad leaves for Alaska in two days.  He is going to be gone for two weeks. Next Monday I can start exercising a bit more and next Wednesday I have my appointment to get my staples out .  Dad is going to be so surprised when he returns and sees how much progress I have made. 

There is one thing I want to have figured out before he gets home.  Just before my accident I was starting to lift my leg like a big boy when I went to the bathroom.  I tried doing that the other day and fell over.  I have to figure out that one soon…I sometimes pee on my one front leg.  I don’t know why Mom always says it easier for guys to go outside.

Mom has taken all the yoga mats that she has from when she used to teach a yoga class and has put them all over the house on top of the wood floors.  This has really helped me get around.  If anyone has a tough time with wood floors…I strongly recommend yoga mats.

At first Mom would mostly massage me around where my leg used to be and up into my neck.  That felt really good.  Then she started to notice the amazing transformation that my left leg is going through.  It is lining up more under my body and I am building up some really good muscles. ( Mom said she has to go back to doing one legged balancing poses so she can build up her legs to look like mine.)  Anyway, she started to massage the leg that has had to start working harder.  Now that’s what I call good thinking.  I was trying to tell her that what she was doing felt good, but, I wanted her to focus on what I still had, not what I had lost.  That’s when I got another one of “those” looks…the one where she says she is learning so much from me.

Well, that is enough for today….

Hope everyone out there is having a Grateful Dawg day…

Wilson

 

What a month!

 
Wilson

I am writing this while waiting for a hurricane to come right through Vermont.  Last week we had a minor earthquake.  I did not notice the tremors because I was in the hospital on a morphine drip.  The morning of the earthquake I had my right front leg amputated.  What a week….what a month…what a summer!  Let me tell you all about it.

 
First off, let me formally introduce myself.  My name is Kirby Mountain’s Sir Wilson James. I like to be called Wilson. (Sometimes I am called Wilson James – I really pay attention to that name)
 
I am a intact male English Springer Spaniel.  (some people say the “intact” part might have contibuted something to my recent adventures)  I celebrated my one year birthday in July.
 
 
This was me on the day I joined my family:
 
 
 
I have always been a bit of a clown
 
I have a partner her name is Kirby Mountain’s Maggie Mae.  (Maggie)  She is two years older than me.  She is also an English Springer Spanier.  We are not related by blood, but, we both came from the same kennel.  Together we are the foundation for Simpson Brook Springers.  Our Pawrent Tim is a bird hunter.  Our pawrent Karen is not.  She likes to take us hiking and swimming.  I like to hang out with both of them
 
This is me and Maggie getting to know each other.
 
Here is a more recent picture of us.  This was taken hiking up Stratton Mountain – just a few weeks before I had my accident.
Maggie and Wilson
 What Happened
 
On Sunday, July 31st,  Maggie, Mom and I were going to hike Stratton again.  We parked in the main parking area around 6:30 in the morning.  It’s nice at that time, there are no cars around and we have the place to ourselves.  The main parking area is actually an upper level parking area.  There is also a lower level parking area. These two areas are separated by a 3 foot high wall (and a 15 foot drop).   Let me tell you something about how I act sometimes.  One of my nicknames is “Dominato”.  I like to jump up on boulders…steps…benches…snow piles….anything to be the center of attention.  I can’t remember how it happened and Mom was getting her backpack out of the car so she doesn’t know what happened.  When she turned back around, Maggie was looking out over the dividing wall and Mom couldn’t see me.  I had gone up and over the wall and fallen 15 feet to the concrete below.  I guess I could have died.  I didn’t…What I did do is break the lateral condyle of my humerus bone. 
 
 
 
My local vet tried to keep it stable until I could get to see the orthpedic surgeon.  I did not like this too much: On Thursday, Auguest 4th, I had an operation.  The surgeon inserted a titanium screw and two pins in my leg.  I was told to take it very easy and that in two months I should feel pretty good.  Taking it easy is hard for me.  Mom and Dad took really good care of me, but, I have the tendency to lunge forward.  About 10 days ago, I broke the screw.  When Mom took me back down to the vet I was told that I could have another surgery that would have a long recovery period and questionable outcome, or I could have my leg amputated.  Mom and Dad chose the amputation.  On Tuesday, August 23rd, I became a Tripawd.  I came home on the 24th.  
 
What it’s like now
 
Out on my futon day 4 after surgery
 
 
I am recovering well.  The first couple of days I would be sitting in my crate and  look down at where my right leg used to be and then look over at my left and then back to my right.  I would then look at one of my pawrents for an answer.  They would just tell me that I am such a good boy and so handsome…so I didn’t worry about where my leg had gone.
 
I have been eating well and trying to get regular with “doing my business”.  That still can be a little hard (if you know what I mean).
 
I hop down four steps to get outside and go around the perimeter of the yard.  I hop back up.  The other day I kicked around one of the peaches that had fallen to the ground.  I don’t really like when I have to hang out in the crate.  The best times are when Mom or Dad open up the futon couch out in the deck room and Maggie and I hang out there with them.
Maggie and Me on the futon
What’s next?
 
I know I still have to take it easy for a bit.  I also know there will be some lifestyle adjustments.  Mom said she bought me a harness and life jacket so that I can still do some of the things that I used to do.  I love hiking and swimming.  If I do go bird hunting (which Mom doesn’t really approve of) it will be on flatter ground and maybe not really thick cover.
 
I am excited to go for a ride with Maggie again
 
I also want to go down to the brook
 
The start up time of the Simpson Brook Springers company ( that I am president of and Maggie is vice-president of ) is up in the air.  Last spring Maggie and I were both ready to start the business.  Mom and Dad thought it was too soon (we did not think much of that idea and we had to be separated.  Being put in “time out” is not fun)
We were told that next time Maggie was ready we could start the “research and development” phase.  That time is coming…I can tell.  I know these things.   However, now Mom and Dad said that the start up funds were diverted to my vet bills, so we might have to wait until spring.
 
I will be new to “this position” in the company, but, I think I can handle it.  Any of my human friends who are males
 have told me that I will find a way…
 
In the meantime, I am getting used to things.  Mom does something she calls Integrative Psychotherapy”.  She talks to people and also does something called CranioSacral Therapy.  I am not sure what it’s all about, but, I do know she gives great massages and says really nice things to me.  In the past, sometimes we would go to work with her.  People were always happy to see me and sometimes I made them smile when they were sad.  Maggie is really talented, she will lie down near a client’s injury.  I just lick them.  I think I might spend more time at Mom’s office.  She thinks I might have a new job.
 
Speaking of Mom
 
I know Mom has had a really tough month.  She has seemed so sad.  Dad seems to be a bit less sad.  I think Mom blames herself for a lot of this.  I know she has been saying things like “If I had only done this” or “If I had only done that”.
 
Mom…this is for you….LET IT GO.  It’s over.  You are a good Mom.  I love you unconditionally.  You didn’t do anything wrong.  I can be a goof ball.  Learn how to handle this by watching me.  I am moving forward.  Sure, I still cry out once in awhile…but that’s part of my healing.  If you did have any part in this….I forgive you…so knock it off.  Give me a treat and tell me I’m a good boy.
 
Also Mom….look at some of the stories on the Tripawd website.  We should be so grateful that we are dealing with just the amputation.  So many other dogs and their pawrents have other things they are dealing with.  We just have to deal with this.
 
This is my first time writing anything on the computer and posting it.  I hope I did ok.  The rain is really coming down here.  We are supposed to get 10 inches today. 
 
Thank you Tripawds community for allowing me to tell my story and for being there for my mom.
 
I will post again soon….
 
Wilson
 
p.s. Mom and I figuring out how to Blog might have been the most challenging obstacle yet