The Big Dog Avalanche of 2016

This past week has been really something. For the last couple of weeks I've been in recovery mode from my wonky hip that laid me low. I really thought we were on the upswing and everything was going great. Until Sunday when The Big Dog Avalanche of 2016 happened.

A little derpy but getting his smile back. And no, I will not throw the ball for you. NO RUNNING.

That's right. It was a Dog-valanche right down the stairs. Me and 470 lbs of dogs took a tumble down the steps on the way outside. While no one, including me, actually face-planted it was pretty bad. It happened fast - Ti and Kai got their feet tangled up on the way down the stairs and we all ended up pretty much in a heap.

Kai was the one who cried and held her bad back leg up....but it ended up that Titan got the worst of it. It was pretty bad - and older shepherd with bad hips taking a nasty spill is bad business. To make it even worse he is the most stoic of our crew. He does not show pain. Ever.

One time I watched Ti get a horrific cut on his paw, shake it off, spit on the ground, and say, "I ain't got time to bleed." That recovery was bad enough. But this hip thing has been much worse. For the first time My Most Excellent Good Sir was in pain and showing it. He couldn't get comfortable and I couldn't fix him.

There is too much detail to cover but suffice it to say there were a bunch of calls to the vet, a trip to the vet, several more calls, and a lot of futzing around until we got the pain medication right. I'm telling you, Titan is one tough dog. With direction from our Good Vet we gave him enough prescription drugs to knock the legs out from under a buffalo - and it didn't even phase Ti. All it did was make him mad. Or dizzy. But it didn't work at all.

Then there was the horrific "wait-for-that-drug-to-clear-his-system." That went on for almost a day. It was horrible. My poor big dog could not get comfortable and would not lay down. For 12 hours straight. It didn't help that Ti and I were giving each other a nervous breakdown. He was upset so I was upset. I was upset so he was even more upset. It was so bad that The Big Man just took Ti downstairs to sleep because we were just spinning each other up into fits.

I had an early morning alarm set the next day so we could switch to the next pain medication... within 30 minutes Ti and I were laying on the same dog bed. We were exhausted but it was working.

So that's what has been going on. A lot of me hovering. A lot of Ti fussing around. The rest of the pack going bananas because two of their leaders were completely nuts. So it's been a tough go for the last week.

Fortunately tho, we are on the upswing. I'm better, Titan is better, and we are getting the pack back to rights. I want to send a very special thanks to all my dog-pals who were so supportive. When a big dog falls he goes down hard. It was exceptionally tough to watch but having everyone's good wishes and checking on us really helped.

Happy Friday everyone - I hope that you have had a MUCH better week!