One Cone Head Coming My Way . . .

Mommy says this all the time.  She recently dragged out some old pictures of my big brother Hunter to show me EXACTLY what this phrase means!

This trip down Memory Lane is because I've tweaked my ACL again!  [sigh]  I'm so sad about this turn of events.  The doctor has said I can't play with my beloved soccer ball for FOUR WEEKS!!!!!

I first pulled my ACL last spring.  After a visit to the vet for some pain killers and anti-inflammatory meds, I recovered and was back to my usual energetic self.  It happened again last summer, but with all the walking we do during the summer, I strengthened my knee in no time.  Mommy was sure this little knee problem was a thing of the past.  Then Daddy took me hunting with him in the fall.  I came home and was just fine, but woke up the next day favoring that leg again!  I seemed to recover within a couple days.  Up until now, I've only limped around while still putting weight on all four legs.  I don't know how I did it, but this most recent time I was truly only moving on three legs.  Mommy was really worried and with good reason.

The vet has decided that I've built up scar tissue on my knee from my injury a year ago and that I've recently strained that tissue.  He wants me to refrain from any major physical activity and build the scar tissue back up since it's helping hold my knee together.  So that means no ball for FOUR WEEKS!  Mommy told me I am to follow the doctor's orders or I could end up like this:

This is Hunter ten years ago when he tore his ACL.  This injury required surgery and weeks of at-home physical therapy.  It was stressful for all parties involved (at least that's what Mommy tells me).

Hunter couldn't use the stairs for weeks following his surgery, so the dining room was turned into a large kennel for him!  Daddy even set up the air mattress and slept downstairs with Hunter since he hated being away from our parents (I know the feeling).

Mommy says it was a loooooooong, sloooooooow road to recovery.  You know what the worst part was?  Besides wearing the cone?  There's a fifty percent chance that if a dawg has surgery on one leg, he'll have to have surgery on the second leg.  Mommy should  have gone to Vegas with those odds because Hunter was definitely part of that fifty percent.  Almost a year to the date, he tore the other ACL . . . I guess on the bright side, he didn't have to wear a cast the second time.  Mommy says there wasn't a bright side.  Well, maybe the fact that dawgs only have two ACLs!

Now I know what it means when Mommy says it's all fun and games until someone ends up in a cone!  I've learned no amount of begging and pleading will coerce Mommy into throwing the ball for me.

In fact, my favorite toy seems to have disappeared recently . . .

Here's hoping there won't be any surgery in my future.  Cross your paws!
Jenna