A Roller Coaster of a Day

Last night when we came home from church, our dog, Oliver, was lying in the floor listlessly. He slowly got to his feet when we came in, and when J called to him to let him out, he just stood there looking forlorn. D finally coaxed him outside, but he was moving oh, so slowly and finally yelped like he was in pain. This is not at all like him. He is the most neurotic, spunky, little dog who barks and jumps and gets all excited when we come home then jumps around the back door wanting to be let out so he can run around the back yard. We were concerned he’d had a stroke or something. He is almost 11 years old, after all. Then we noticed the huge dog across the fence in our next door neighbors’ yard. They’ve just moved in, and we haven’t even had the chance to meet them, so this was the first we’d seen of this dog.

Oliver seemed terrified of that big dog next door. At first we wondered if that might be what his problem was. A little over a year ago, while staying at our vet’s office for “camp” while we were out of town, a big dog had dug under the kennel fence and attacked “Little Buddy”, aka LB. Oliver is a tough little guy, but he was hurt pretty badly and couldn’t bark for several months afterward. Our vet felt terrible about it and all of Oliver’s resultant care was on the house seeing as it happened on their watch, but he recovered fully, except that he now has quite a healthy respect for big dogs on the other side of his fence. We also wondered, since we haven’t yet met our new neighbors, if it might even be the same dog. That wouldn’t be much fun for Oliver.

Well, last night, Oliver didn’t sleep on our bed and when I got up this morning, I noticed that he wasn’t even on the couch where he usually sleeps when he’s not in our room. He was in the hall floor, and he didn’t get up when I talked to him. I finally got him to go outside, but he was moving really slowly and he didn’t do anything but look at me pitifully, so I brought him back in and he laid down on the floor and didn’t get up again. I was worried. I know he’s just a dog, and in the grand scheme of things, that’s not all that important. But he’s our dog and he’s been a part of our family for over 10 years and all of the kids’ lives, so it’s a big deal for us.

When I took Oliver in to the vet today, he at first thought that maybe he had strained his neck or back somehow. We can’t figure out what he did, because it must have happened while we were at church last night. Maybe he fell down the stairs or jumped off the couch wrong. Anyway, the vet kept him for a few hours to do x-rays and blood work. Then he called me to tell me that Oliver was severely anemic, so something else must be going on and it must be serious and they needed to do more tests. I have been just sure all day that Oliver probably wouldn’t be coming home and we’d be having to explain to the kids that he’d had a good life, but wouldn’t be home anymore. We even had talked to the kids about how Adam’s sin didn’t only affect us. It affected all of creation. That’s why animals die and why we are sad and sinful. We live in a broken, fallen world. Even the earth was cursed, and all of creation groans for the day when it will be made perfect again. I know that dealing with the death of a pet is just an inevitable part of being a pet owner, and this scare was a teachable moment for sure, but not one I wanted to have last night.

Well, D called the vet before he came home tonight, and they were ready to discharge Oliver. After doing more tests, they couldn’t find anything, so they re-ran the anemia test and he isn’t anemic after all. Seems it’s a sprained neck like we originally thought.

So, after crying all day, it was nice to welcome Oliver back. He’s feeling pretty crummy, but he’s going to be okay. I know that, though we’re so relieved to have him home tonight, we’ve only postponed the inevitable. There will be a day in the not too distant future when we’ll have to cry with the kids, but it’s not today. And for that I’m glad.