<- to part 1

Follow up with the veterinarian is essential.  So are regular visits, including the annual exam.  Finding a veterinarian who provides excellent care for your dog and who values good communication with you is just as important.  You and your veterinarian can work together to provide excellent health care: You can ask your veterinarian all your questions, tell her or him your concerns and observations, and work out solutions to problems or medical conditions together. After all, you know your dog – you observe him every day – better than anyone.

This morning, my mom puts the lead on me. This is good.  We go outside and I’m standing on the sidewalk, awaiting instructions on what we’re going to do and which direction I should start heading in. Then she says  “Joey, go to the car”.  I do. She’s very excited that I’ve learned this new word, car, and says nice things to me. She also says the words car Go to the car car Go to the car a zillion times. I heard her the first time, but she persists in saying this word car.

When my mom and I arrive at the animal hospital and she is putting the car in a parking space, I’m already excited.  The door to the back seat, where I am, opens and I get excitedly out of the car and I know just where to go.  I walk excitedly up the side of the building to the door of the animal hospital. Each step brings me closer and closer to bliss.  The door opens and – I’m inside!  JOEY!!!! I hear my name ring out from the medical technician and this is even better. This is the place where I was first taken when I was hit by the car.  Except that now I’m all better! This is the place where I have many friends.

Soon, I meet a technician I’ve never met before. He is really kind, I can tell right away! He talks to my mom a lot and I’m hearing the words he and Joey a lot.  I’m used to this.  I have to stand on that thing, the scale, and everybody is happy that my weight is just about back to where it was before I was hit by the car.  Then we go back to the little room and talk more. I am at the center of all this activity.

Soon my beloved Dr. Tamara comes into the room. She talks to my mom, then examines me a little, and then talks to my mom. While she’s talking to my mom, I’m paying attention to Aaron, who is really kind to dogs and to me. While Aaron and I are sitting in a corner, my mom is telling my doctor about how often I pee and mark, and about my daily habits.

Then I stand up and Aaron holds me gently around my chest while Dr. Tamara examines me some more, but I can’t see her. She’s examining me from my rear end. This is a strange examination and my mom comes over to me  and stands really close to me and looks into the depths of my eyes to a place beyond human language and speaks into my eyes and says “Good boy.  Good boy.” That’s very nice and very calming the words and the way her voice kind of sings. But this examination is very unusual.

The doctor says things to my mom that I don’t understand.  I’m not sure I want to understand.  I’m not moving – one inch – from this position.

Then that’s over.

Dr. Tamara and Aaron have me lie down on the floor. Jane comes over to where my head and face are and says nice things to me. Again, I’m at the center of all this activity but I have no idea what it’s all about. Soon, Dr. Tamara is pulling back the prepuce, the skin over my penis, and she is examining my penis. She is looking at where my penis was lacerated during the car accident. She is talking to my mom. I’m quiet. I’m a good patient.  This doesn’t hurt but it is odd.  My doctor examines me and says “I’m not worried…I’m not worried” and then nobody seems worried.

Then it’s all over. Everybody acts happy and I get treats. I’m not worried, either.

I understand happy. But my mom is very happy.

I never understood the fuss in the first place.

Everybody agrees that the urine in my blood that had the other doctor so worried about 2 months earlier when I was being boarded was just from my damaged penis.   And my prostate gland, while enlarged, is not abnormally enlarged for a male dog who is whole, like me. And I pee and mark like a normal dog and poop without any strain.  All of which make my parents, who seem to observe and note every little thing I do, very happy.

So, in the end, after a lot of examining and a lot of talking, my doctor writes “healthy” in my chart.

Healthy – and happy.

A healthy and happy ten-year-old unaltered male dog who has survived being hit by a car and is loving life, more than ever.

*********

The other morning, bright and early, my mom drove me over to the big and now familiar animal hospital. Once inside, a few technicians came and got me and one of them took my lead and out we went!  My mom said “Bye, Joey!  See you in a few days!” and off I went with the technicians.  For the last 5 days I’ve had a great opportunity to make friends here in this little place.

Things were just fine, I started making new friends.  This is a nice section of the medical center where I have my own space.  But today the a doctor came over to examine me and take some tests on me.  Dr. T, who is really nice and gentle with me, took my blood pressure and also took a blood test. When I was having my blood pressure taken, people came over and said “Is that Joey?”  They were really happy to see me after a long while and I was happy to see them too.

I’m not sure what’s going on and my parents haven’t come yet to pick me up so I’m just going to go along with the flow.

I’d say that I wish someone would tell me what’s going on, but I probably wouldn’t understand anyway. In the meanwhile, I’ll just make friends with the other dogs and the doctors, technicians and volunteers, something I’m good at doing.

Today we took another trip to the animal hospital for another bandage change.

I met more and more dogs and one of them even let me lick him!  This dog I liked a lot. Her name is Fay. When Fay’s mommy was holding her in her lap, Fay let me lick her face.  She was really happy about this and we got along really well.  Then later Fay’s mommy put Fay down on the ground. I went to play with Fay and lick her face but suddenly she seemed afraid of me and hid behind her mommy’s legs.  Maybe because when she was on her mommy’s lap and higher up she liked me to play with her but when she was down on the ground and could see that I was many times bigger than her, she got nervous. So Fay’s mommy and my mom decided that I should leave Fay alone so that Fay could feel happy and comfortable.  It’s too bad that I couldn’t just say to Fay that no matter how tall or small she is, I would like to be friends with her and I hope she could be friends with me.  But dogs don’t communicate that way.  But if we could, that’s what I would tell her.

There were other dogs in the hospital, too.

There were two dogs named Lowell and Lana who went together with their dad.  Lowell was the younger dog and was very excited to be in the hospital but Lana, the older dog, was very nervous.   Their dad held Lana in his arms and you could see Lana was shaking and their dad held Lana so that she felt comfortable and protected. It’s too bad that I couldn’t just say to Lana that I’ve been in the hospital many times and that everything was going to be alright and that the doctors in the hospital really care about their patients. Dogs don’t have that kind of communication but if we could, that’s what I would say.

Tern, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

I also met a dog named Tern. Tern is a Cavalier Spaniel and these dogs are very friendly to humans and to other dogs. Tern and I became friends there at the animal hospital and he even let my mom take a photo of him.

Then something really great happened:  My mom and I met two children who had a dog.  The two little children asked my mom, “What happened to him?” and my mom said that I had a broken ankle. Then the two children pointed to one of their dogs and said that their dog had a broken ankle too and had plates and screws in his leg too!   Maybe if their dog could talk to me he would say, “Don’t worry, just like me, you will be able to run again.” But dogs don’t communicate that way.

Still, I feel it in my bones that I will be able to run again and I will be able to run with my dad, we will run early and we will run far, and we will run side by side!

Now you can please continue with today’s story!

Today I got to spend more time at Angell and to see more dogs.  Never mind that the doctor changed my splint again because my mom noticed that I had eaten the bandages once again and that about two feet of bandage was trailing out the bottom of the splint, and that I had chewed away at the bottom part of my splint.  There is no doubt that I would have continued pulling and chewing had she not seen me and stopped me.   Never mind that within ten minutes of her noticing that, we were back in the car, my joy at going for another car ride had made me forget about my annoying splint and bandages. I was at the animal hospital, among friends.

In the animal hospital, I met a wonderful dog named Traveller.  I am showing you a photo of Traveller, who was really friendly, very sweet-natured, and very mature.

A lot of children also came up to me. The children were very interested in me and asked Jane a lot of questions about me.

Two little sisters, Wanda and Miri, came and sat near us.  Wanda wanted to know my name and I couldn’t answer for myself so Jane answered for me. When Wanda’s little sister Miri saw my tail wagging back and forth, she pointed to my tail and her finger was moving back and forth as my tail was moving back and forth, and she asked, “What’s that?  Why is his tail doing that?”  Jane said that it’s called wagging, and that I’m wagging my tail. She said that I wag my tail when I’m happy.  The little girl seemed happy with this answer.

Then a little boy who said his name was Giovanni came up to us.  He saw my leg in the bandage and wanted to know what had happened to him.  Jane said that I was hit by a car.  Honestly, I don’t remember being hit by a car, but that’s what Jane said happened to me.  Giovanni had a lot of interesting questions. He pointed to the large bald spot on my back and leg and asked, ‘What happened here?” Jane said that the doctors had to shave me so they could do surgery on my ankle. They wanted the whole leg to be clean.  Then Giovanni pointed to the bald rectangle on my side and asked, “What happened here?”  Jane said that when I was hit by the car, I was in a lot of pain so the doctors shaved that area and then put some medicine on that spot so that I didn’t feel so much pain and could relax.  Giovanni held out his hand to me and I licked it. Then I licked his face!  He laughed and enjoyed that!

Wanda then came up to us again and held out her two hands that were cupped together as one, and showed us a little box that she was now tenderly carrying.  Wanda had had a little white pet hamster named Cookie Dough and he had fallen down and gotten very hurt. The girls’ mommy and the two sisters had brought him to the hospital but the doctors couldn’t save his life. Wanda said, with tearful eyes, that inside the box was Cookie Dough and we said “Goodbye, Cookie Dough” and gave Wanda a little hug. Then Wanda, holding her little box, and Miri and their mummy left the hospital, to allow Wanda time to heal her fractured heart.

One of my new friends was Evan. Here you can see Evan and me, as I was about to leave the hospital. Even has a mixed Labrador Retriever puppy. He said that he hopes his Lab will grow up to be as strong and healthy as me. Wow, that’s quite a compliment!

The air at Angell energizes and excites me. When I was leaving, I saw a lot of people who made me happy, and I let them know that by wagging my tail. I think that people really like it when dogs are friendly to them.  When I go to this hospital, people who pass by me, or who I pass by, say “Good boy” and “He’s a beautiful dog” and “He’s so friendly.”  I don’t understand “boy” or “beautiful” or “friendly” but I do know that people are saying the nicest things!

Outside of the hospital, I jumped into the back seat of my parents’ car, they jumped into the front seats, and we drove off.  Suddenly I started to feel really tired.  My dad opened the back window so I could get some fresh air. That was nice. But still, I felt very slow, very low on energy.   At some point the car stopped and Jane got out of her seat and ran around the car to the back and got into the back seat with me, and petted my head, and kept saying, very softly, “Good boy. Good boy, Joey.”  She said, “We’re going home!” I felt so knocked out and barely heard the word “home” but I do know that I was with my parents, and that was just fine with me.  Jane scratched me under my ears, and in between my eyes,  some of my favorite places. It was so pleasant that I kept dozing off.

Maybe my being so groggy was a good thing. When we got home, Jane walked me into the house with the lead on, and then she took the lead off of me. Freedom rang and I was able to walk around the dining room and the living room and the kitchen on my own.  I was able to drink my water right in the kitchen, in its old place.  Life had the ring of familiarity to it.

Then familiarity overcame me and I made for the door to the basement and nudged it open with my nose, and started down the steps to the basement and…I was on the first step when suddenly “Joey, NO!” rang out like thunder.  I don’t know what the big deal was, but next thing I knew the lead was attached to my collar and Jane was walking me down the stairs, on the lead, one step at a time. Might this have had something to do with the “instructions”?  Frankly, I was too tired to care.

Jane brought my bed down into the basement, where I made myself right at home.  It was nice to be home, nice to be able to walk up and down stairs, even with the lead attached, nice to be in the basement with my parents, and nice to be able to fall sound asleep in my own bed.

The hospital even had visiting hours! There were afternoon visiting hours (11 a.m. – 12 p.m.) , and evening visiting hours (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.). Some people worry if their pets are in the hospital and they can’t visit them every day.  I think we pets are just fine with that.  There were some days when Jane and Phil couldn’t get to the hospital but that was fine because my doctor kept them informed about how I was doing, and also because I just needed a lot of rest.  Of course when Jane and Phil came, I felt great, even though I was pretty tired and out of it.  Jane even came right into my pen and sat down with me!  It took a lot of effort because I was so groggy but I did manage to wag my tail now and then, which was my favorite way of saying that I was happy to see them.

I noticed and remember when Jane said, “Look! He’s wagging his tail!” and I could hear the excitement in her voice.  I noticed that she had noticed and was glad.

In the hospital, I had my own emergency care doctor, Dr. B. I also had my own dentist! Boy, I felt special. Everybody loved me, and I loved them.

When I was in the Critical Care Unit, lots of people were congratulating Dr. B on what a wonderful patient he had. He took pride in having me as his patient.

Many people worry about the care their pets will get.  My emergency care doctor is nice, and smart, and really cares about his patients, and this is why he and I get along so well. He’s a really busy guy with, unfortunately, lots of animal emergencies, but we managed to get him to stand still long enough for the photo to be taken.

Thanks, Dr. B. I owe you a lot!

******

When we got to Rotherwood, the animal hospital, Jane parked the car in the “Handicapped Parking” spot.

Then she got out of the car, closed the car door behind her, and ran up the ramp and into the hospital, and in a moment two technicians, holding a stretcher, ran out of the hospital and down the ramp to the car and put me on the stretcher, and together carried me up the ramp and into the hospital.

Here you can see the handicapped parking spot. However, this photo was taken a few weeks after this initial incident. You’ll notice here that the bandages on my splint are purple.