The Dogleg in the Dog Leg

For those of you who might be wondering, Leeloo's surgery went fine. When I took her in to the vet's the day she broke her leg, I saw her "before" x-rays. Her left front leg had a 90-degree angle in it just above the ankle.

When Ken picked her up after her surgery, he saw the "after" x-rays. He said it looked just like a normal leg, except for all the pins and braces holding it together. So, luckily for Leeloo, there's no more dogleg in the dog's leg. After about 12 weeks of healing and rehabilitation time, she's expected to be good as new.

Here she is a few days after her surgery, with her big bandage covering her leg brace, and about 1/4 of her hair shaved off:



When I got home last night from my somewhat less than successful trip (see Can't Catch a Break... Or a Sheep!), I decided that it was one of those rare nights when I really wanted a drink. A brief search of our liquor cupboard turned up just the thing to lighten my mood: a tiny trial-sized bottle of watermelon schnapps. Mmmm... tasty!

Leeloo had also had a rough day, since she had had to go back to the vets for the first checkup on her leg. They changed her bandage to a slightly smaller one that left her foot bare so she could start learning to walk on that leg again.

So, when the schnapps bottle was empty, I let her play with it. Even though there was nothing in the bottle, she still did a creditable impression of someone getting totally drunk after a hard day:







After this, she continued her imitation of a wild drinking binge by vomiting on the rug. Twice!

She's on the mend though, and is in good spirits, if a little subdued since her accident. Now our job is to work with her several times a day to make her begin to use the leg a little bit more each day, so that it keeps getting stronger.