The History of Scout, chapter 3, "The Plot thickens"

If you will recall from our previous episode, Scout and John's #1 son and girlfriend went to something called a "dog park," which I had never heard of. But it sounded like a place where Scout, absent a fenced yard, could run and play and get rid of all of her excess energy. But when Scout and her guardians were not home at 6:30, I became, shall we say, "concerned." I became "frantic overprotective dogmom", saying things like "6:30 is her suppertime. She has to have regular mealtimes." (ok, so I was a little anal retentive.) We finally got a call at about 7:00 p.m. J. and S. were in St. Paul, at her parents. They were thinking of taking Scout to a vet they knew. It seems that she had had some sort of an "accident" there. "What happened?" I asked. "well, there was this Great Dane.. and she had already met the Great Dane once and he seemed really friendly. Then all of a sudden, the Great Dane ran up to her again, and kind of, SAT on her." "SAT on her?" "that's right," they said. "Bring her home."

They came home and I witnessed the sad spectacle of Scout, whimpering and limping, mostly being carried. She was not her old rambunctious self. So we took her to an emergency vet, who felt her leg. He couldn't tell for sure if it was broken. Did we want X-rays? (Expensive!) We decided to wait and see... she might be okay in a couple of days. Some dogs, he said, like some people, like to dramatize things. Don't worry yet.

She wasn't ok in a couple of days. We took X-rays. There was a hairline fracture going almost all the way through the bone. So Scout got a nice fashion accessory (see picture) which would need to be checked every week for the next few weeks. And we couldn't get it wet. We used an I.V. container when we had to take her out in the rain (which was, unfortunately, a lot. It was spring.)

We got some pain medication also, which turned Scout from a pathetic whimpering dog into a PARTY animal who didn't seem to mind her impediment at all. The Vet had said, "No running or jumping. But how do you keep a happy puppy down?

Just a few days after the cast was put on, Scout started whimpering in the middle of the night. I was angry. She was old enough now to sleep through the night. What was up??? But I got her out of her kennel and took her outside. She was sick again. Didn't want to get sick in the kennel. I was tired, but my anger melted.

But what about this "getting sick thing? Was this normal? I noticed when I would take Scout in for her weekly "cast check", that her weigh stayed virtually the same -- at a time when puppies usually gain weight quickly and are roly-poly. She seemed happy, though, and just as energetic and mischief-making as usual. We checked into getting her into a puppy class at PetSmart, but learned that she would not be able to, with her cast. At the Animal Humane Society, they would take her, but she wouldn't be able to do the "puppy play time."

At about this time, another behavior emerged that concerned and frightened us.

to be continued... "Animal Humane Society"