Silver Linings

I'm a glass half full kind of girl. I try to look on the bright side of things. Still somethings get me down. C went to get fixed on Thursday (not that I think anything is wrong with her but I don't really want a litter of puppies).... the vet called to tell me she has a knee problem that is pretty common in small dogs. Basically her knee caps on her rear legs can shift out of place. It comes in four types - 3 and 4 being the worse. Since she was under for the surgery when they found it they don't know what type she has. Some types have to be surgically corrected. I was devastated.


I googled the disorder. I called the breeder. I peppered the vet with questions. How serious was this? Would she be okay?


The short answer is yes. We have to watch it and her. The breeder and vet were pretty optimistic and gave me some awesome answers. In short I went from nervous and upset to ok this is something we can all live with.

And now a few days later, I'm actually looking at it on the bright side. Her breed can get some pretty serious heart problems so if you had to pick one or the other I'd rather deal with the knee thing as horrible as that sounds. And the breeder and vet both knew dogs that did fine with the problem. I have to keep her weight down, she can't jump off things, and we need to start taking her on trail walks (like up and down hills).

So I got to thinking about all these things the breeder and vet said to do. The first two easy - watch what she eats and lift her off the sofa. I can do that. I don't even have to change what I'm doing now. But the trail walks... well I've never been much of a nature girl. I like nature enough. I preferably like it secured behind glass walls or in a nice park. But I did have a lot of fun at my engagement photo shoot where we went out in Bedford to some nature hiking place (I don't remember now) and we walked around doing photos. It was fun.

So I told K. Maybe this is the silver lining. It will get us out of our comfort zone. We can find some awesome trails to take her on and in the end we'll get exercise too. I've already made a plan of things to Google and I for one can't wait until Spring so we can actually take her places.

So I guess the lesson I learned today was look for the silver lining. Maybe things won't be as bad as it seems right away. I mean we all live with things that we have to work on. This is her thing.

Who wants to go on nature hikes with C and I? :)