carter

here's the whole story of what happened:

carter, being the naughty puppy that he is, likes to sneak out of my parent's backyard. we don't know how, or where, for sure, but we think that he shimmies his way under the back fence. usually we catch him, and he doesn't get very far. if he does manage to get out in the park, he either comes when we call, or we find him relatively fast.

this was not the case on july 10th.

i'd just gotten home from vacation in siesta key, and was stopping at my parent's house before heading back to jacksonville. lucy and peewee also have a habit of getting out, but they're both shorter than carter, and can get past the barriers that we put in their way. they also never leave the front yard. in fact, they come to the front door and bark so they can be let back in. (lucy thinks this is a game). anyway, i open the door to see two puppies sitting there, so i immediatley call for carter. nothing. check the backyard...nothing. i'm a little annoyed at this point, just because he knows better, and now i have to go look for him. that annoyance quickly turned into worry when i couldn't find him after an hour of calling and searching. my parents live in trimble park, which is pretty much a peninsula. surrounded by water full of gators. (paul, joe and kyle used to call it the jungle when we were in school).

i was so worried that i got the park employees to keep an eye out, just in case. i had no idea what might have happened to him. maybe he's been picked up by some random person. maybe he got caught too deep in the muck near the water, got stuck and couldn't get out. maybe a snake got him, or heaven forbid, a gator. so i kept looking. dad and i even went out into tangerine, thinking maybe he wandered too far and didn't know his way back. (he would eventually prove me wrong here). at this point it was close to 2pm, and he's been missing for almost 5 hours. i had to come back to jax, so my parents promised to keep looking and to let me know what happened, but by then we had pretty much given up hope.

mom called me at 730pm. i knew something was wrong by the way her voice sounded, because it was the same tone she used when she told me that sammy died. i was scared. all she said was "he's hurt". they found him (by they, i mean my dad and my doberman, duke) in the backyard, next to the shed, in the bushes. he couldn't move his back legs. we think that he got hurt somewhere in the park, and dragged himself home...which can only be described as sheer force of will.

because it was so late, they decided to wait until saturday morning to see the vet. our vet is a very sweet woman who practices out of apopka. her name is dr. sands. we've been going to her with the dogs since before i was born. she's right off 441, across from robinsons. she said that it looked like he'd been hit by a car. run over by a car is how she put it. he had a deep gash on his left shoulder, and after xrays, two broken hips and a fractured leg. when mom called and told me, i cried. my poor baby was hurt and i wasn't there to do anything. for those of you with a dog or a cat you adore, you know what i'm talking about. it's like having a child.

dr. sands couldn't opperate, so she sent carter to a specialist. they took a look at him and scheduled surgery for monday morning, since they could make him comfortable enough and there was no immediate damage to any organs.

they put a screw in each hip and a rod in his right leg. the vert said that he would possibly have some nerve damage in his right leg that would cause a limp that might never get better. he was put on crate rest, and would have to have 8 weeks or rehab. but he would be fine, maybe a little less rambunctious than before.

i went home this week to see him, and his spirit has not been diminished. he's still that same playful boy, which i am thankful for. he looks a little pitiful still, because they had to shave him for surgery, and his stitch scars are healing (he chewed out his stitches, by the way. my mom had a fit). he doesn't put weight on his back right leg yet, but it's getting there. he's allowed outside for 5 minutes every couple hours to walk around. my dad gave me the xrays of his hips. i'm going to have to find a way to post them, because they are pretty cool. you can see where the bones completely detached, and where they broke off and turned. he must have been in so much pain.

vet says that he's going to make a full recovery.

God was looking out for a very naughty puppy that day.