Where did I leave off?

Oh yeah. . .paraplegic dogs. . .

After a trip to the regular vet, and 2 trips to the emergency vet, the dog was admitted. Every time we took her somewhere, she'd seem to improve, then we'd get home, and she'd be worse than she started.

Vets basically said it's either a major case of arthritis, or a disease older dogs get which causes disks to deteriorate. They scheduled an MRI (for a dog!), and eventually surgery.

Apparently, the MRI showed a chronic disk condition, but possibly also something they call a spine stroke. They surgery basically went: open, nope, it's not a disk problem, close.

$3500 for them to basically not be able to do anything except have us haul her back end around in a sling (which was a plastic trash bag). Dogs can apparently recover pretty well from a spine stroke. As of now, the dog can't do stairs or jump, but can walk around on her own.

And bark. And chase the cat. And lick anything that stays still long enough.

To add to the fun, and make this have almost something to do with the house, between trips to the vet, the other dog manage to find holes under the fence and escape. Twice.

Those holes have since been blocked.

So some people have something to read

My wife's ex boyfriend (from years ago) had 2 dogs, one of which they had when they were together. Every couple of months, he would call and ask her to take the dogs.

When we lived in an apartment, the answer was no. When we moved to the new house, the answer was no.

Then we got the fence, and the answer was yes.

We happened to be driving down to NC to go to a wedding, so it was actually a convenient time. We drove 18 hrs back (really bad traffic) with 3 adults, 3 kids, and 2 dogs. And we survived.

Dogs + cat = pain in the neck. Obviously, the dogs like to chase the cat. It probably doesn't help that the cat is either stupid or really daring and trying to toy with the dogs.

At 5 am, this is a really bad thing. When afterwards, one of the dogs ceases to use its rear legs, its an even worse thing.