This seems to be a theme lately. I wake up and can't get back to sleep, so I give up and just sit in front of the computer in an attempt at productivity. The culprit tonight, the big dog and the little girl. In that order.
For any of this to make sense, you need to know of the big dog's trials. Gracie, our sweet, (and slightly stupid) Great Pyrenese cross. She's crossed with not only Golden Retriever, but Lab, so I believe this explains the stupid thing, but it's happy stupid. Gracie got in an altercation with either a cow or our horse. We are waiting for calving to start any moment, so we are pretty sure it was a cow, expectant mothers are kinda bitchy, at least I was when I was that close.
Now, Gracie has a bad habbit of chasing the cows and we knew as calving approached they were going to get sick of it. We were right. We actually thought that a small encounter would cure her of cow chasing. While we have had Gracie for over 3 years, this is the first year we have lived on the main farm with the cattle, and this has caused some issues. Since she has not taken the friendly persuasion of not chasing cows, which has been a lot of yelling. Oh, and I threw a hammer at her (it wasn't even close to hitting her, I wasn't trying to hit her, so don't start thinking I abuse my dear puppies). She chased the heifer calves and steers in the feed lot and I yelled and since I was using a hammer to fix a gate, I threw the hammer out of frustration, not exactly at her, just because of her.
Now, back to Gracie's cow run in. None of us actually saw it, but Dustin came back to the shop after doing something in the yard and there she laid waiting for him..She got up, the leg was dragging terribly. So, off to the vet we went for x-rays. She had a mid-saft femur fracture and our vet Dawn informed us that there was one vet in town that does the necessary pinning if we wanted to try to fix it. So, we went to him for consultation. Yup, surgery needed. Well, we had three choices to be exact. 1) Put her to sleep. You can see why this was not an option for us, Gracie is part of the family and she is so good with our kids. Dustin couldn't come home and explain to Ian why Gracie wasn't coming back.
2) Amputate the leg. Of the three options, this was the most cost effective. Dawn said she could get use to it really easily and it was considerably cheaper than option number three. But, this time, I couldn't imaging my dog with only three legs and I didn't want to explain to Ian why Gracie was not sans a leg. So, choice number 3) Surgery. I haven't yet received the bill, but let's just say that my dog is now worth more than my horse. WAY MORE!
The damage was worse the the X-ray even showed, so she had her bone pinned, plated and then all that was wired around the bone. So, it took a bit longer, but the vet was happy with how it went. She was high when she got home (love those opiates!) But by last evening, she was starting to gingerly walk on it and return to her same personality. Lovable and silly!
Now, all of that, just to tell you why I am awake now. She woke up and peed on my floor, she came to get us, but apparently only made it to our bedroom before she could wake us up. So, I heard this, freaked out slightly, let her outside, but had to turn the entry light on, which woke Ella up. Ella refused to go back to sleep, instead insisting on her morning milk and mommy cuddle time. Which is usually wonderful, but not at 1:45 in the morning. So, by the time I got the dog and Ella situated, we had approached 3:00. I laid in bed for 30 minutes and now...Here I sit. Trying to decide if I can get the Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter bulletins for church done. I would like to have them finished before this Wednesday. We'll see what happens.
While I often like this time to myself. Right now, I would have preferred the sleep. But, I guess bulletins it is. Or more likely, I'll get distracted by how to design Ian's birthday cake. Either way. Hopefully something will get done.
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