12-15-15 Sigh. Today we had a trauma. Thankfully, all will be ok, but we are so upset! David and Rocky (Rocky on his leash) were sitting outside at the camper at Shady Pines RV Park just outside of Texarkana enjoying a beautiful day. Rocky is pretty much deaf and has very poor vision. He didn't see the 2 strays (one looked like a Cur and the other a Pitt mix) approaching until they got right up in our site. David wasn't too concerned as we've seen a couple of other strays at this rv park. The others didn't cause any problem for us. These 2 were different. David tried "shooing" them away, but they kept their focus on Rocky. Once Rocky discovered them, he stood up to bark and they lit into him. The Cur grabbed Rocky by the back of the neck with David hollering and kicking him the entire time. I will never forget the intensity of David's voice and Rocky yelping. I ran out of the camper and for that split second when I came out, the dog looked up and let go long enough for David to pick Rocky up. The dogs didn't get aggressive with, or even seem to notice us. Both of us were kicking and hollering until they finally backed off. A fellow rv'er came over to see about us, but our top priority was to get him Westridge Animal Hospital.
We got to stay with him for quite awhile. They assessed him, talked frankly to us, and then kept him overnight. Since he is nearly 14, they wanted to observe him overnight and do a little extra testing to be sure he could handle the surgery to put him back together. The surgery will be tomorrow.
12-16-15: The surgery went well. They considered keeping him another night since it was so severe, but Rocky let them know all afternoon that he wanted his people. So we picked him up late this afternoon.
They'd told us if the gashes were deep, they would probably have to put in a couple of drain tubes. Well he came home with 5!!
And too many staples to count.
He is on pain meds and that helps him stay still and get a lot of sleep. We still cry.
The other rv'er had taken a pic of the Cur back in October for some reason. We are thouroughly disgusted with people who let there dogs roam. And with Bowie County for not having a leash law or animal control. This is a problem that Shady Pines has to deal with too often. Kete does a great job of trying to run them off. And someone even went door to door in the area with Rocky's attackers following to try to find the owners. Of course, nobody confessed. They obviously had a home because they were both clean and healthy.
A big thanks to Kete from Shady Pines for texting us and checking on our baby after we left. She kept up every step of the way on his progress.
I will say that David and I are more nervous about walking him than he seems to be about getting out. We jump and get ready to scoop him up at every little sound and movement.
12-20-15: Arrived JCRV today in Ingram. Boy was Rocky happy to be back at the place he loves and where everyone loves him! He wagged his tail for the first time since the incident when Mr. Ken came up to greet him. And when he saw Mr. Tom, he literally ran circles around him. Does our hearts good!
BUT, Mr. Tom noticed his staples starting to come out. We have an appt tomorrow with a Kerrville vet that Dawn and Ron recommended. This is to serve as a follow up and to see if tubes can be removed. But tonight we called the on-call vet and he convinced us it'd be ok to wait til tomorrow. Tonight he scratched one of his drain tubes out. That sucker was at least 12 inches long!
12-21-15: Today we took him in to see Dr. Kim. Our appt wasn't until 2:00, but we were there this morning when the doors opened and she was gracious enough to examine him. She said she'd have to put him under again, remove the staples, and stitch him up.
We got to pick him up this afternoon and wow! He looks better. Drain tubes are out, but we still will keep the t-shirts on him until the drainage stops. The stitches look so much more comfy than staples.
Can you guess what happened here? Uggh. Such a fluke. I was reading in bed and David had gone to play golf. Often he'll sit on the floor to see if David comes back in. I called him to come up in the bed with me, but he didn't. No whimpering or anything, so I didn't think there was a problem. After a few minutes I got up to pick him up and he was hung up in the heater vent. Made me so sad. But he wasn't hurt. He won't be wearing his dog tag any more around the camper.
He was very happy to get cards from Cooper, his JCRV peeps, and Edith/Spice.
12-23-15: Had his follow up with Dr. Kim and she thought he looked great! We will come back in a week or so to get stitches out, hopefully.
12-25-15: He seemed to enjoy what Santa brought him also!
12-31-15: Said our "cya's" to our JCRV peeps. Rocky loves Mr. Tom and Mr. Ken. This was good medicine for him!
1-6-16: Went back to Dr. Kim today and she was very pleased with they way he has healed. So she removed all staples and released him.
1-11-16: Back to enjoying a sunny day outside the camper.
I always thought I'd be pretty reasonable about spending a lot of money of an older dog. But $1000 dollars later, I'd do it all again if I needed to. He's worth every nickle.
Oh, I guess we spent even more than that, because now we have a gun.
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