Sunday at the lake...
Chase the Wonderdog is a retriever who never retrieves. He mostly chases things, picks them up, drops them and then comes trotting back. We go through a lot of sticks.
But even moreso than not-retrieving, Chase's favourite thing in the world is swimming.
Sometimes Chase makes new friends at the lake. Sometimes those friends are 3-year-old boys.
Fact: dogs and small boys make decisions far too quickly for anyone to be able to react in time to stop them.
Ever so calmly, Chase walked past the wailing boy and towards us.
It was no one's fault. Just an accident.
pre vet visit
post vet visit
Aside from giving us some painkillers, our vet couldn't do much about his four broken teeth. She referred us to a veterinary oral surgeon in the city, who did a fabulous job of patching him up.
Open wide...
Multiple vet appointments, anesthesia, surgery, antibiotics, three kinds of painkillers, follow-up appointments, travel, etc, etc, etc. Thank goodness for the pet insurance we've been paying for since Chase was a puppy, otherwise the bill would have cost us far more than the 700 dollars that we ended up paying out of pocket.
Worth every penny.
It's been exactly one week since Chase's surgery, and he's almost back to normal. One last follow-up appointment to make sure that the stitches dissolved properly, and we'll be done. Still, I figure this has to be one of the most expensive rocks in Eastern Canada right now.
* * * * *
Happy birthday Dad! See? I finally posted. On your birthday.
This is a very powerful message on the dangers of rocks...and three year old boys! (Is that a bit of blood on the rock I see? Powerful stuff.)
ReplyDeleteAAAAH! I could see that happening in a split second.
ReplyDeleteGlad your pup (I don't care how old he is, he's a pup) is feeling better.
Poor Chase. I'm glad he's doing better now. (Your clay figures never fail to amaze me. You are soooooooo good.)
ReplyDeleteCool dog, scary looking vet. Glad I'm not a dog...
ReplyDeleteOh no, Chase! Shall we send him aspic dog bones?
ReplyDeleteGAAAAAH! ASPIC!!!! Why do you hate my dog?
DeleteOH NO! Poor Chase the Wonder Dog! I'd have flipped my gourd. Glad to see all is well!! No more catching rocks, Chase!!!
ReplyDeleteYikes, at least he looks like a happy boy now! And see? I KNEW you could do dogs. Chase looks great in clay ;) Sorry all of that happened though...
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm actually quite pleased with how he turned out. Of course, I wrecked him during the photo shoot. Oh well.
DeleteThanks for keeping on her, Dad!
ReplyDeleteLOVE this post - the doctor is my favorite. And as a former insurance person, I used to wonder who all the buyers of pet insurance were. Thank you for clearing this up for me. (:
Poor Chase - thank goodness he's on the mend (though the vet looks super-scary, could have been quite traumatic for Chase... LOL)
ReplyDeleteThe vet specialist was fabulously wonderful. The doctor's actually from an earlier post where I wrote about my (human) dentist. He was pretty scary.
DeleteAWWWW pooor puppy. I wince thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteOh my lord, poor Chase! So glad that he's on the mend. He is absolutely adorable. :D
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDeleteYou're the best out of province child a dad could want.
I hope chase can still enjoy chewing on a good stick
Apparently he (like all other dogs) is not supposed to chew anything. Not sure how that's going to work out.
DeleteI think the rock looks pretty scary no wonder he bit it?? I am glad you had the vet insurance too whew. Happy birthday DAD see I commented on your birthday LOL!!! Love your posts Stephanie you have been greatly missed and stop those tears the clay will run remember the heat and sweat??? Glad Chase is better :]
ReplyDeleteI am so happy you are back. Seriously, I moved, have no friends, I need blogs from you! Blogs I tell you! Won't anyone think of the....well, of me???? Also, I'm glad your dog is better. and that wasn't my kid. I'm very glad about that.
ReplyDeleteHa! Laughed out loud at the "wasn't my kid" bit. The dad felt so bad. But the little guy meant well. It was just a stupid accident.
DeletePoor puppy! I'm glad he's okay now but I feel so bad for what he went through!
ReplyDeleteStephanie, another award-winning column! Dogs, we love them though: new hiking boots, yes; nylons yes; plastic part from braces, yes; watch strap, but not watch face, yes; leather case with hunting bullets inside, yes; but rocks no. The list was all the things my English Setter ate. So glad Chase is OK and Happy Birthday to your dad who raised an amazing young woman :)
ReplyDeleteOh my! That's insane! My dog went through a chewing phase when he was a pup, but the only "illegal" thing he got to were my glasses. That sucked.
DeleteOh poor Chase! Glad he's bouncing back. I'd say maybe you could bronze the rock, but that would mean more money!
ReplyDeleteOH my God. That's brutal. I didn't know there was such thing as pet insurance! I just got a dog, I think I should purchase some of this insurance asap (my dog is not so smart...)
ReplyDeleteYes, it's definitely worth it! We met a couple when Chase was a pup who were making a difficult decision: borrow 8000 dollars for surgery or put their 3-year-old dog down. We never wanted to be in that position. Our insurance costs 20 dollars per month. We've been lucky enough to never have to use it until now, but it paid for itself twice over with this one incident.
DeleteOHHH!! SO sad!! :( I have been wondering where you've been, and glad you're back ... but poor Chase!!
ReplyDeleteAw, poor guy. I'm glad he's doing better now.
ReplyDeleteAw, no! That made me wince. I have a lot of nightmares about breaking my teeth. I will NOT be eating rocks.
ReplyDeleteI hate it when something like that happens and on the inside you're so peeved but you can't blame anyone. Poor Chase.
Oh and EXCELLENT clay work. Especially on that oral surgeon.
I used to have tons of nightmares about my teeth falling out. They wouldn't break, they'd just kind of tumble out of my mouth. Nightmares suck. And I have to confess that the oral surgeon was from an earlier post about the dentist. I think I'm probably more scared of the dentist than Chase was of the vet.
DeleteOh Stephanie, you did it again, gifted me with an enormous bout of heart-warming laughter to the point of overflowing (even though my hubby is trying to sleep..lol). I couldn't keep it in. What a hilariously funny almost unbelievable story... Your dog must be something special to fetch a rock,,,, a rock ,,,, for a new little friend. I'm not at all insensitive to the dogs painful ordeal nor the frustration you must have experienced especially while on vacation. But, your wonderful story telling ability, your creative gift with clay, yes, your ability to take even such a story as this and put a playful spin on it... Stephanie, you really should consider putting all of these entries into book form.
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a jewel to end my day with :) :) Daisey
Thank you Daisey! I don't think my photos are high quality enough to publish, but I would like to work on my photography skills. I'd love to publish some stories some day!
DeleteOh man. Oh man......I could almost feel that in my own mouth.
ReplyDeleteI mean, it's a great story, but wow what a process!
I'm glad Chase is ok...
I love dogs. They're always the reason for hilarious - and sometimes disastrous - events. They make life more interesting. They're good for crying out your sorrows to. And most of all, I love how very stupid they can be!
ReplyDeleteM. x
Poor Chase! Glad he's doing better and hope he's back to himself very soon. How scary and sad. I'm sure the little boy didn't mean to do that, but gee whiz...That is quite a rock, I'd say!
ReplyDeleteOh Lord! Poor Chase the Wonderdog - and the little boy will probably be traumatized for a long time. Rocks and dogs just don't mix. Will he have trouble eating? Anyway, your clay figures are awesome as usual! Hurray for pet insurance, though...
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to your dad!
I was just thinking about you today! It's wonderful to see you in my mailbox! Thank you for the smil!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what you'd get for it? Maybe it would fund a lifetime supply of clay?
ReplyDeleteIs it weird that this made my teeth hurt? Glad Chase is feeling better :)
ReplyDeleteYay! Go Chase, he fares better at the dentist than I do! :P x
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness...poor Chase...poor everybody...So glad he's feeling better and healing.
ReplyDeleteI always love watching dogs by water because of the "can I swim? let me swim? I wanna swim! Oh boy, I'm swimming" factor. They're just so sweet and get so much joy out of it...I hope Chase will put this behind him and head out for a swim again.
Oh no! Poor Chase! What a terribly expensive and painful trip to the lake that turned out to be—for all of you. I’m glad things worked out and the veterinary oral surgeon was able to patch him up. I’ve always thought pet insurance was unnecessary and too pricey...until I read this. :-o The next time we get a pet I’m definitely going to rethink insurance!
ReplyDeleteYikes! Too bad about your dog there. Once, I was batting out balls for our Lab to fetch. He decided to jump and catch the ball just as I was swinging the bat and ended up breaking a tooth. He was pretty sore for a while until I found the broken piece of tooth stuck in his cheek. He was a lot more careful around bats after that.
ReplyDeleteHopefully he heals up completely from this.
Ouch, poor Chase! I'm glad he got well cared for and are all smiles again. But my god what a story!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Stephanie's dad.
ReplyDeleteI almost cried thinking this could happen to my dog. He suffers from canine hip dysplasia. Every time he limps about (which isn't often, thanks to exercise, and clean diet), I cry more than he does.
Poor pup! I'm glad he's doing ok.
ReplyDeleteIf you'll excuse me, I need to go get some pet insurance.
Poor Chase the Wonderdog. I'm glad he's ok. So, you have pet insurance, huh? We've sort of looked into it for our furry babies. We looked heavily into it years ago when we discovered one of our dogs has hip dysplasia (and he wasn't even 2 at the time). Unfortunately we were told that he was eligible for the insurance due to that pre-existing condition. But, we still got him a hip replacement (we figured he was too young to go through life in that much pain). Now he'll be 9 years old next month and he's doing great!
ReplyDeleteYay! You're back!
ReplyDeleteSo Chase is apparently very appropriately named. And your clay effigy looks just like him. Great story, and glad it had a happy (albeit expensive) ending.
Ooooops!! My friend had a Welsh terrier who insisted on fetching rocks. Needless to say, he had a lot of broken teeth...
ReplyDelete