Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Crash, boom, bang!


Poor Sam. I'm really going to have to get him a crash helmet. We filled in the other day at the YMCA for a friend and about an hour into our shift, Sam tripped on a bean bag in the reading corner and fell into a door with a metal edge. I thought he just hit the glass with his head. Everything stopped because it was so loud, and people came out of their offices to see who hit what. At first he didn't cry, but then he rolled over and kinda sat up and I could see the goose-egg from across the room. Then it started bleeding. It didn't bleed a whole lot, considering it's a head wound, but it was still pretty nasty looking. We hit him with an alcohol swab, an ice-pack and some steri-strips. I thought he was doing okay and he seemed fine after a bit, but I wanted to take him to the doctor anyway just to make sure. Our doctor was at lunch, so we waited for the Urgent Care Clinic. While we were waiting, Sam ran into the wooden arm of a chair in the same place and made it bleed again. The doctor told us that he didn't want to try stitches because he said it would be very difficult to hold Sam still for the procedure, so they wanted to Dermabond it. Fine. On the way to the procedure room, Sam was walking down the hall and ran into a metal door frame with the other side of his head. By the time we got there, it was swelled up pretty good too. The nurse thought he was hilarious. They held him down and glued his cut closed and let us go. The doctor said he would have a scar. Vince didn't mind. Chicks dig scars he says. He seems fine. A lady in the waiting room kept saying that she had a headache just from looking at his bumped head and he was running around like it was nothing. I'll include some pictures on here.
When we got home from the Dr.'s office, this is what I came home to. I had made up treat bags for Audrey to take to school for her birthday. Almost 30 bags of candy chewed up and ruined. I know that it's hard to tell from this picture because my kitchen table looks a lot like this most of the time, but on this particular day, it was kinda cleared off and one of the dogs had to have stood on the table to get at the treat bags. And they chewed up Katie's sheepskin into little bits. She still has one big section left, but it's her sleeping buddy and it's pretty much ruined. And there were 4 puddles of pee. We have been leaving them locked in the kitchen when we leave or at night because it's been cold. Here lately, someone has started peeing in there. Makes me so mad. Also, Buddy likes to steal food and I don't like that at all. He usually gets a short beating and then thrown outside. He has been known to steal food out of the kids' hands as they are eating it. You would think after numerous beatings (I am exaggerating here, people) that he would get a clue, but this is Buddy we're talking about and he's a few cards short of a full deck. So, when I came home and saw this mess I immediately banned them from the house except for when it's REALLY cold or at night. Apart from Ranger, that is. He's so sick. Most of the time he acts okay and we can't really tell, because he was already our mellow, lazy dog who laid around all day anyway. But he has been sneezing blood more lately and he is really sucking wind now. I would imagine that it's hard for him to breathe around this lump in his nose. I'm sure it's blocking most of the right nostril. We have told the girls that he's sick and might not live, but don't have the heart to tell them that we are going to take him to the doctor to kill him. Vince remembers when he was little and had to have his tonsils out. They told him that they were going to have to put him to sleep for the surgery. Apparently, he was a little frantic because they had just had a family pet "put to sleep" and he knew what happened there! I don't want to traumatize my kids. They know that Ranger is really sick and that he might not live so they give him extra lovings. Which he gladly takes now and again. We have been letting him sleep on the couch during the day and have been giving him extra kibble in his bowl, even though he's our fatty. We figure-what's the harm at this point? Next week Vince's mom comes to help with the kids and I don't want to leave her with a very sick dog to worry about too. So, do we go ahead and put him down? Or do we wait and see if he is still feeling fine beyond his estimated time? I hate to risk it and then leave her to deal with taking him to the vet if he gets bad while we're gone. Decisions, decisions.

1 comment:

BareFoot Finn said...

Boo-boos galore! How is he doing?

Maynard is accident prone too! And one cut was even from the Y as well...he tripped and fell!