lesson learned

so i guess the saying is true that you don't know what you have until it's gone... or almost gone.

my mom picks up our puppy, kashmir, every weekday so that he can get out of his kennel and enjoy some socialization with other animals at the crazy treimer farm. on a normal day, morgan and i leave the house by 7:00 for work, kash waits patiently in his kennel for 'granni' to pick up him, and he leaves our house no later than 10:00. morgan generally picks kash up from doggy daycare in the evening, brings him home, and the pooped-out pup crashes until the morning. (as you can see, it really works out in our favor!) however, last monday (11/1) was a bit of a different story. it started out like normal, but instead of going out to granni's to play, kashmir went out to granni's and got ran over.

i received a panicked phone call around 10:00 from morgan, saying that kash was being taken to the vet and that he got ran over. i began to freak out immediately, to the point where i had to leave work. (it was my second day in the new office and i was crying hysterically - great impression!) i drove as fast (and safely) as i could and met my mom at the vet. there was my poor puppy, sprawled out in a kennel with an IV of morphine. according to the vet, kash had internal bruising which caused his lungs to fill with blood. the vet said it wasn't bad, but he was concerned that kash's heart had possibly been bruised, which meant there was nothing they could to for him. kash also sustained a broken hip and some horrible cuts to his leg. we were told that the next 24 hours were crucial, and that as long as he lived through the night, he should be okay. i returned to work that afternoon (determined to show my new supervisor & coworkers that i'm not irresponsible) and waited to hear any type of news regarding the fait of my six-month-old pup.

about two hours later, i get a call from mary (that's my mom) saying that kash has done a complete 180 and is being sent home. confused, and remembering what he looked like just hours before the phone call, i asked my mom how this could be humanly (or caninely...?) possible. my mom said that kashmir's gums had gone from white to perfectly pink, which was a good indicator that he was on the fast-track to recovery.

so my mom took kashmir back out to her house (this time, inside) and watched him like a hawk until we were able to get off work. poor puppy. he was in so much pain and could hardly stand. he had no control over his right leg due to the break in his hip. we had to take him outside in the freezing cold every couple of hours so he could try to pee and/or poop. it was so sad to watch him try so hard to do something that used to be second nature to him.

he had his hip replaced on wednesday, 11/3, and got some stitches in his leg. (there was a big gouge from the gravel road.) he was able to stand much better after that, and was even walking on it some. by the weekend, kash had come back home with us and was putting more and more weight on his leg. he even got to play with his girlfriend, the neighbor's dog bugsy. (of course, they had to take it easy.)

up until yesterday, kashmir was making great strides in his recovery. unfortunately, yesterday he got knocked over by one of my mom's dogs and fell right on his bad hip. mom says he cried for a little bit. she called the vet and they said to keep him away from the big dogs for a while. we saw him last night and he was more interested in laying around and sleeping than anything else. :(  mom said that he is in a lot of pain today and she has to help him stand up. the vet said that he would be hurting because of his fall, but it's still so depressing to see him like this.

we're hoping he's better and back to himself soon. the house is so lame without him around, unless you're weasley - who thinks that being the "man of the house" is absolutely amazing. damn cat.

the mays'