I was wondering how to tell this story and didn't think AR was the venue. But now that there's a CONTEST!!!! Well....Yipeeyiyay~~~! 
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This is about Bentley. We originally called him Segerbutt, after our relatives who gave him to us a few years ago. He pooped and peed everywhere as a youngster. Indoors. He showed up out of nowhere in a forested area in Naples and no one tried to find him or claim the poor little thing. He was registered as Beethoven originally. I had always wanted a Rolls but settled on a Bentley...
SO about two months ago, I walked him around the block and as I was getting to the front door, I stepped on his little toe. He reacted quickly and pulled his leg back, yanking his right rear hip out of joint. YIKES. He was whimpering and obviously in pain.
The wife took him to a clinic within a few minutes and they put him in a stint after putting the ball in the socket. About a month later they removed the stint and unfortunately, he did not mend and had to have surgery. The surgery was explained as typical for dogs of any size... Bentley is a poodley thing that is half Pekinese, about 15 lbs. of raw nerve and instinct. Big inquisitive eyes, white long squiggly fur, short legs long body. Go, go, go.
They shaved his fur, clipped the ball of the femur (?) and put a cap on, then stitched him up. He went through the surgery and looked awful afterward. He had two weeks of recovery, and after a few days with a dog collar and little movement, he is free but his right rear leg just hangs lifelessly. This was a doggie that bounced everywhere, jumped on his hind legs as soon as we would come home, and was non-stop. I was responsible for this.
I was recovering myself at the time from an elongated hip mishap that made it difficult for me to walk accurately. I remember the instant it happened. I was about 6 feet from the door. I was not in perfect cadence with Bentley and he hesitated momentarily. It was either me or him. I was going to fall flat on my face if I had tried to move just a hair. I just couldn't get out of his way.
So, a momentary hesitation, a split second mishap, and our doggie was damaged. They say 
that it takes six months sometimes for an injury of this type to heal. They didn't tell us that he might be wobbly and not perfectly flat-footed. He looks pitiful and it has broken our hearts and put my wife on high anxiety mode. She exercises him and puts him in the pool to dog paddle. He is normally a bouncy thing and I make him climb on me to get his third treat every night. On three legs he is finally getting up here! But that bad leg needs to be worked.
He has a great attitude but has been on pain killers and anti-inflammatory medicine. He is just now getting back to a bit of exercise and walking. The docs wanted him to stay put during the entire ordeal. So he gets exhausted just after a few minutes. He bounces in and out of the house chasing his little purple dinosaur after he gets a bath. After that, he conks out for the rest of the day!
Well, the idea of the fragility of life has been on my mind for several weeks now and we should be thankful for any good health that we have! Just taking your eye off the road for a second, just mishandling a tool or weapon, just saying something that you might not have meant...
But Bentley isn't the only three-legged dog in our neighborhood. There is a greyhound a block away that was recently adopted after he erroneously had his right rear leg amputated! It is so sad, yet such a victory to see that animal with a happy disposition and full of energy as he is walked by his loving owner.
Dogs are such sweet animals. So human. So emotional. They forgive, they forget. They love unconditionally. They will endure periods of abandonment and loneliness but will come back if cared for. They are truly a gift from God!
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