Fabi, Emily and Lucy romping in the snow

Lucy was sleeping peacefully a few hours after returning home from the vet hospital.

After scheduling Lucy’s amputation surgery for tomorrow (Monday) morning, I’ve been doing some reading and research about three-legged dogs. Although several people made jokes about changing her name to “Hop-a-long” or “Tripod,” I’ve discovered that a lot of people with a three-legged dog use the term “tri-pawed” or “tripawd” when talking about their pet — it’s become shorthand in some circles. Please note, I am not changing Lucy’s name to any of these terms; if anything, I would call her “money pit.”

One of the items I’m looking to purchase is a full-torso harness with a handle on it. The handle will allow me to lift and assist Lucy over rough terrain and rocks as well as up and down stairs and into the truck. Many tri-pawed owners recommend the Ruff Wear Web Master Harness and I think I’ll purchase one of these for Lucy. She’ll still jump in and out of the truck and run up and down steep hills, even if she shouldn’t, but she will certainly need some assistance for the first few weeks after the surgery. There is also a D-ring in the harness itself, situated midway on the back that will allow her leash to attach instead of on her collar — I’ve read that three-legged dogs need to have a leash centrally-located to keep them from being pulled to one side and losing their balance.

I spent the day today playing with the dogs and taking them for a long walk in the nice weather (shh, don’t tell our vet we took a walk). We’re headed to the pet store in a while to grab more dog food and probably some special treats, too. Lucy deserves a good day before losing one of her legs.

After two and half years of fighting Lucy’s leg injury with bandages, a toe amputation and an arthrodesis surgery, we’ve come to the point where a decision had to be made: continue spending time and money to “save” the leg (and potentially suffering from an untreatable infection the next time she cuts her paw open), or remove the leg and let her live a more normal life. It’s a tough decision.

I’ve been told by many well-meaning people that three-legged dogs do just fine. They run and play and don’t seem to notice they aren’t like the other dogs. I’ve seen this myself as there are quite a few three-legged dogs in the area. I like the thought that Lucy will be able to play and go hiking and camping without the concern that she’ll lose the hiking boot she wears and cut her paw open (again). We won’t have to worry about bandages and the eventual resistance to almost all types of antibiotics and downtime healing up her paw. The money saved on many fewer visits to the vet for exams and bandaging and re-bandaging and more antibiotics… well, that would be nice too.

The hard part is making the decision… making the decision for a family member who cannot make the decision herself. It’s not a decision I am making lightly, either. If somebody came to me and told me that for everybody’s benefit I would need to have an arm amputated, I’m not sure how I would feel. I know dogs don’t have the mental capacity to reason through this process and I shouldn’t anthropomorphize their “feelings” into the decision, but I can’t help it. It’s a “life-changing” decision for her and for me. I’ve made the decision and I have to convince myself it’s the right thing to do.

We have a consultation with one more specialist tomorrow afternoon, and while I don’t want to go into the appointment with my mind pre-determined on the course of action, I’m unsure what he can say that will change my mind about the amputation. I’ve also decided that I don’t want any kind of prosthesis for her — all of the dogs I’ve seen with an amputation seem to get around quite well without any prosthetics.

Pending some miraculous and game-changing treatment option from the specialist tomorrow, we’ve tentatively scheduled the surgery for Monday 28 November.

The purpose of the trip was to visit family. I worked during the days, safely sequestered inside the air-conditioned house. The dogs only ventured outside for five-minute periods to pee before deciding to head back in the house. They slept a lot last week.

In the evenings we did family things such as dinner at Ponca City’s finest chinese-style buffet restaurant [note: it was awesome to hear the chinese staff say things like "Follow me to your table y'all."]; watching television; and swimming in the pool.

Fabi loves swimming in the pool and would repeatedly jump in and splash whomever was looking too dry. At one point she slipped a bit and hit her rear on the side of the pool, spraining the muscle that holds up her tail. It’s better already but it certainly didn’t stop her from jumping in the pool again and again.

Lucy, on the other hand, was not interested in swimming. She’ll dive into an ice-cold mountain river and fight the current but my guess is the very warm water (92 degrees in the evenings) and the chlorine smell convinced her it was more fun just to stand at he edge of the steps and attack Fabi every time she climbed out of the water.

As we fueled up before heading back yesterday morning, even though the dogs were riding in the back seat of the truck cab (air-conditioned since it was too hot for them in the back under the topper), I realized that heading north through Kansas would let the morning sun shine directly in the passenger-side windows and effectively reduce the amount of usable space in half. The dogs get too hot with the sun shining on them, so I decided to take the southern route back home to Denver. We drove west from Ponca City through northern Oklahoma to the panhandle. The temperature hovered around 100 degrees until we were near Guymon where a rain shower cooled things down into the lower 80′s. As we entered northeast New Mexico we caught up with some monsoon thunderstorms that lowered the temperature into the 50′s at altitude. It was a great trip home.