Happy fifth birthday to our sweet Anna Dasher!
Five years of snuggles, enthusiastic body slams, fight club matches with her sister, the cutest little face you’ve ever laid eyes on, snoring in her sleep and somehow managing to stretch her body across an entire king-sized bed. This girl has brought us so much joy! She is sweet, funny, affectionate and such a good girl. We absolutely adore her.
The birthday girl with her favorite human…. a couple of weekends ago!
Unfortunately, the birthday girl and her big sister have put us through quite a month. I’ve mentioned a few times that things have been a little challenging with the puppies lately, and goodness gracious, that might be the understatement of the year!
It all started with Elsa. Something was clearly going on with our sweet old girl, but we couldn’t figure out what. After multiple veterinary appointments, blood tests, ultrasounds, examinations and what felt like every medication under the sun, we finally had an answer. Elsa has developed urinary incontinence.
The wonderful news is that all those tests ruled out the other things we were so worried about. At her age, that was an enormous relief! The less wonderful news is that we’ve had to make quite a few adjustments around the house while we figure out how to manage it.
All the rugs on the main level have been rolled up, baby gates are keeping the girls in the kitchen when we’re away and we’ve added doggie diapers to our daily routine for certain times and overnight. Never a dull moment!
I literally just got off the phone with a compounding pharmacy about Elsa’s new medication, and we’re hopeful it will make a big difference. At this point, I’m simply grateful that our girl is otherwise doing well and that we finally know what we’re dealing with.
For the first couple of weeks, the beautiful fall weather made everything a little easier. I could leave the porch door open and let Elsa come and go as she pleased.
And then Anna got hurt.
Last Monday, I walked out of my office and into what looked like an actual crime scene. Blood. Everywhere. Drops, smears and splatters all over the house. I had absolutely no idea what had happened or who was hurt.
I immediately started screaming for Whit as I ran upstairs. He wasn’t in his room, so I called him while making my way toward the basement.
He answered quite casually, “Hey, Mom.”
“ARE YOU BLEEDING?!”
“No, I’m at the gym.”
“Okay, gotta run!”
“Who’s bleeding?”
“Don’t worry! Probably nobody!”
Good grief. I’m sure that was a reassuring conversation for him. Haha! I’ll deal with that later.
I finally found Anna lying on the kitchen floor, and my heart just sank. I had no idea what had happened or how badly she was hurt. I grabbed a dish towel, wrapped it around her and just lay there on the floor with her.
I called Honey, who thankfully was already on his way home. He was only two miles away, and I told him not to stop the car for anything.
My first instinct was to look up our vet, but the office was closed. I wasn’t thinking particularly clearly at that point, and it took me a minute to realize that Anna needed an emergency animal hospital anyway. I found the closest one, called to make sure we could bring her straight in and got ready to go.
When Honey arrived, we started getting Anna into the car, and he told me I wasn’t coming.
He pointed out that Whit would eventually be coming home to an empty house that looked like a crime scene. There was blood in practically every room downstairs, and someone needed to stay behind and take care of it.
He was right, of course.
So while Honey rushed Anna to the animal hospital, I got down on my hands and knees and started cleaning. It took me an hour and a half to get all the blood off the floors and furniture.
And just when I thought I was finished, I noticed blood on the porch.
I followed the trail out the back door, across the pool deck, around the pool and all the way to the firepit. That’s when I realized Anna must have injured herself somewhere outside.
By then the blood had dried on the pool deck, so I hauled out the hose and a broom and started scrubbing all over again. It was not an easy cleanup, and I was absolutely exhausted by the time I finished.
The next day, Honey went outside to see if he could figure out what in the world Anna had gotten caught on. Many years ago, we had a little pathway leading from our grassy backyard toward the golf course. It was lined with metal landscape edging and filled with rocks, but over time we stopped using it, and it eventually became overgrown and all but forgotten. We affectionately call that part of the yard “the back 40.”
Well, Honey discovered that a piece of the old metal edging had worked its way up out of the ground. And there, caught on the metal, was some of Anna’s fur. We finally knew what had happened, and oh, how that made our hearts hurt. The thought of our sweet girl getting caught on something we didn’t even realize was there was just awful. And knowing it was preventable made it even harder. Needless to say, we’ve taken care of that old edging so nothing like this can happen again.
Meanwhile, Honey was keeping us updated from the animal hospital.
The doctors took Anna back immediately. She had somehow cut her leg open so badly that the wound extended down to the tendon and bone, with a large flap of skin hanging loose. Just hearing the description made me sick.
She was sedated and given antibiotics, pain medication and fluids while they worked to repair the injury.
It was around 1 AM when Honey finally brought our poor girl home.
Dozens of stitches. A cone for two weeks. A whole collection of medications.
And one very relieved family.
Thankfully, Anna is going to be just fine! Within about two days, she had perked right back up and was acting much more like herself. In fact, keeping her calm has become our biggest challenge.
She’s only allowed outside on a leash while she heals, and that cone has to stay on around the clock. If you’ve ever tried to convince an energetic five-year-old goldendoodle to take it easy for two weeks, you can imagine how that’s going.
And remember that lovely arrangement where I could leave the porch door open for Elsa to come and go?
Well, that’s over for now, too, because Anna absolutely cannot be allowed to run outside.
So here we are, managing one senior girl with a new bathroom routine and one younger girl who is feeling much better but isn’t allowed to do much of anything. Between medications, diapers, baby gates, leashes and the cone, our house has become quite the little canine care facility.
Whew!
But here’s the thing. As difficult and frightening as this past month has been, I keep coming back to how grateful I am.
I’m grateful that all of Elsa’s testing brought us reassuring news and that we have a plan to help her feel more comfortable. I’m grateful that Honey was so close to home when Anna needed him and that the emergency team was able to take such good care of her. And I’m especially grateful that our birthday girl is healing and getting back to her sweet, silly self.
These two girls have brought so much happiness into our home. They make us laugh every single day, keep us company and love us unconditionally. Even when they’re turning the house upside down, I can’t imagine life without them.
So here’s to five wonderful years of Anna Dasher, to our sweet Elsa and to hopefully a much quieter month ahead!
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