Lucy, my fearless (to the point of stupidity) canine partner in running, has had a really bad week.
We began last week with a run near a fence line in a neighborhood, just jogging along and a rogue dog pokes through a rogue hole in its white trash fence and barks at us. Lucy took it upon herself to protect her mamma from said rude dog, and bit the crap out of the nose sticking through the fence. Full-on her teeth over the dog's nose and I wasn't sure she would let go.
So I stepped in. Yes, insert groan here.
I grabbed Lucy by her shoulders, she still wasn't letting go. I got my hands on her top jaw and pried them off the dogs nose. Finally she let go but not before she caught my right hand in her teeth. Across the pinky and next two fingers, punctures. Thought they were little ones and we'd keep running but the pinky was really bleeding. Then it was really hurting. Tried to wipe the blood on the grass and felt something move. Something unnatural. It was dark so I just wrapped it up and we got the hell out of there. Got back to my car and Lucy looked fine and dandy, didn't see any other-dog parts on her, and my pinky nail was split through the middle. Still hurt like hell but I figured nothing could be done that night.
A trip to the doctor the next day for a tetanus shot and I'm told the nailbed is split and needs stitches. Eight painful lido shots in the finger later and my nail has been removed and 4 stitches are in. Thanks, Luc.
Funny thing about comeuppance...and karma. Lucy did not escape the week unscathed. When my finger felt good enough to run again in 4 days, I took my girl out again with me. Regular route near the house. Turned at a corner on the sidewalk at a point we sometimes go straight and Lucy tried to go straight, pulling a bit away from me. I laughed that she has doggie memory of a different route, and at that second a car turned that corner next to us and she was startled and jolted toward it, ready to chase. She slipped out of my grasp and took off. It wasn't going that fast but she was right next to its back tire and as fast as she went toward it she clipped it or it clipped her. That was it. She hobbled over to me with a foot dangling from the "knee" down...not good. Her turn at the doctors.
No doggie insurance so instead of a $30 copay like me, she had a slightly more expensive surgery to install a plate and screws to realign and stablize her leg. She a pathetic mess now.
I so missed her tonight on my run. I probably can run faster without her zigzagging and poop breaks, but I really miss her. She's confined to the bathroom with an elizabethean collar on (which is in no way regal, it looks like a lampshade) and is walking around in a daze. Two weeks of this and the doc will check her staples and hopefully pull them out so no more collar, but still no strenuous running, jumping or playing for 8 more weeks. That is not Lucy. We have stairs and she's used to beebopping up and down them without a thought. Now a baby-gate is keeping her downstairs.
I hope to get back my runner-girl, maybe with a bit more humility and respect for the big loud motory things that pass us by. She can still take a chunk out of a dog that comes after me though, I won't stop her again.
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