Ben IS BACK!!!!

BEN IS BACK!!!!! I kept hearing dogs yelping down towards the interstate, so did Rascal and Trixie. They would rush to the edge of our property and bark excitedly in return. After many repeated episodes of this I went into the house and got the binoculars. I looked and looked down that way but never saw a thing so went back to doing something, don’t know what. Walking out of the garage I again looked that way and…and…was it? IT’S BEN. There was no question he was hurt and the back leg looked broken so I ran to him, along with the rest of our dogs. He just laid down, exhausted and panting hard. We all examined him closely. It looks like Ben has been in a fight. Gretchen was especially excited to see him. I cried like a little baby, not caring that someone driving by would see. I didn’t want to pick him up so tried to coax him to walk the rest of the way but he only made it a short distance so I picked him up and carried him. Then I called Cherie. She was happy and said that at least not all the news today was bad. Next was a call to Dr. Law, our veterinarian. I told her it was an emergency and on her approval carefully loaded Ben in the truck and rushed him to the vet. This upset Gretchen, who wanted to stay with Ben and ride with us. She terribly missed him.

Dr. Law examined Ben and explained that he did indeed have a broken leg. “It’s not broken where I would have liked. It’s a bad break in a bad place” she explained. “The cheap way to do it is with a splint but I don’t think that will work”. I’m sitting there with tears and told her that we wanted to do it right. That will entail major surgery and putting a pin in the bone. The pin would have to come out in about two weeks, requiring more surgery. “I don’t care what it costs” I said, and “It’s our dog” as if that explained everything. It will be expensive and the timing sucks but we will do whatever it takes. This may be one of the rare times I ask for help.

So I left Ben with the vet after petting and reassuring him. She will take X-rays after giving him pain medication. The surgery will probably happen tomorrow. She said we will probably get Ben back Monday. Then it’s weeks of nursing and recuperation.
The more we can keep him off the leg the better it will heal.

This all just blows me away. How thankful I am to have Ben back. Hopefully I will snap out of this depression. Just think, Ben has been gone for four days now and hobbled back on a severely broken leg. The doc said his injuries are the type you see when a car hits a dog. Either that or he got caught up in some kind of equipment that twisted his leg. That’s a mystery I’m not worried about solving.