Weekend Warrior

Dear Leo,

You really enjoyed yourself this past weekend. We had a good five days of cloudy, overcast, cool weather. You were thrilled! For once it wasn't too hot to be out and about and active! No settling for just an early morning walk- you could play! Outside! You could run without getting too hot, racing your sister around and around the backyard. You wrestled, rather roughly, I thought. A combination of the frisky weather and the fact that your sister, newly diagnosed with hip dysplasia, is feeling better thanks to some treatment, and actually wanted to play with you for the first time in a long time. I know you've missed that activity, but, honestly, you're not a puppy anymore- you're bigger and heavier than she is, and now you play rather roughly as a result. It's not fun for her the way it used to be.

You also played Frisbee! First time since the spring, because it gets too hot around here very quickly. I was really pleased with your skills- you threw down every trick in the bag, but the major breakthrough was that, for the first time, you actually seemed to have grasped, mastered and applied "drop it" to the game! Finally, you could drop discs on cue, as you are supposed to, so that I could toss you the next one, which you eagerly awaited. Where in the past few years "drop it" as applied to Frisbee seemed to take forever for you to comply with, IF you complied, or I would have to go and physically remove the disc and redirect your attention, this time you dropped it on cue and were waiting for the reward of the next throw! It was heaven!

Then you & Kansas came inside, and wrestled some more, on the new tile floor, which tends to be a bit slippery at times. You played with all of your toys...

You didn't like me handling that paw at all, when I was performing your weekly nail trimming. I had to fight you on that one, which was odd, because you've always stood calmly for your pawdicures.

... and then Sunday morning you awoke with a very slight limp.

You went on the morning walk, anyway, as I couldn't figure out whether it was a real limp or some kink from sleeping in one position to long that could be worked through. I made sure to walk more slowly, and stay on the sidewalks, which also limited your range of motion, and that seemed to work just fine.

You have also limped, on occasion, very mildly, briefly and randomly for the past year- on the same leg.

You seemed fine for the rest of the day.

Monday morning the limp was even more pronounced.
It only got worse as the week wore on. Tuesday you actually seemed to be in a great deal of pain and discomfort. Daddy wouldn't let me give you any of the Rimadyl that the vet gave us "just in case" for Kansas. I think it would have helped. I understand he didn't want you feeling so good and pain-free that you overdid things as a result, but I do believe that if we had given you some to manage the pain, inflammation and swelling, you would have been more comfortable. After all, it's not hard to limit your activity, you sleep in a crate for 12 hours every night, and then lie around all day (thanks to the heat) except for that morning walk. You've always preferred to be a couch potato, and we could have leashed you for potty breaks in order to limit your mobility even more. But, he wouldn't hear of it. So I had to watch you bear the weight of your 81lb body on your good leg, and worry about the strain on it on top of everything else. Nothing is swollen or warm to the touch, we haven't found any wounds or anything stuck in your paw, Daddy has done numerous pressure point tests and joint manipulations, which you have endured without so much as flinching.

You seemed to perk up in the evenings, which was nice, except that then you proved you couldn't be trusted to walk calmly outside to relieve yourself and come back in. No. You thought you could just tear across the yard after whatever squirrel/bird/cat might be out there, race up and down the back fence with the neighbor's stupid dogs on the other side, run after whatever your sister was running after...

You have really tried my patience this week. Every time you would do so well and work so hard to rest, you would then undo all of that hard work with your bursts of energy. Not good, Leo. Not good. What's the point of not walking you (other than that the neighbors don't see your terrible limp and wonder what the hell is wrong with me that I'm walking you) if you are going to later run flat out?!

Today you are still limping, though much less. I noticed a drastic improvement yesterday afternoon. Of course, that was after you and Kansas staged an impromptu and much reprimanded bout of racing, chasing and wrestling- again.

At least you only hold that paw up after you've been up and about for a few minutes now, instead of constantly. You still don't want to put weight on it when standing or sitting, but trotting about the yard doesn't seem to bother you, and since you chose to do it and appear to be enjoying yourself, I give up.

Daddy thinks you have a slight fracture in one of your carpals. Even if we took you to the vet, all they could do is x-ray it, confirm, and prescribe the same meds that Daddy's already said he doesn't want to give you. So... more rest it is, though I can see you've about had it with being calm and sitting still.