As many of you heard via facebook last night, Toni got hit by a car last night. As we all know, the Hansons some time forget that we left Toni outside unsupervised. And, to be honest, Toni is a little sneak and likes to take a rendezvous around the neighborhood when she feels that her exercise allotment has not met her needs- ie: most of the winter. She has been encountering near misses with cars for the seven years we've had her, and tonight she didn't get missed. Critelli's had called us and said they saw Toni out for her stroll (kids had accidentally left garage door open when they used the code to get in after school). Chris and the kids looked for her, but couldn't find her. Toni has been gone during blizzards from 10pm-1am, but we all knew this was different. *Kids were bawling. I was secretely looking for her, but pretending not to be worried. Well, at 8:15pm someone called and said they had found her huddled up next to a fence by Fox Run park, along the road that runs North and South between Timberline and Fox Run. A lady had called the cops, but then another man took her home and called us. The police met Chris there and he brought her home. *Her right hind leg was obviously deformed and she couldn't walk. Vet said that we could wait through the night, gave her some aspiring for pain, but to watch for signs of breathing troubles. *Well, we get her all set up in the mudroom and we're ready to go to bed finally around 11:30 and Chris says "she's panting." I go in there and it looks like she had been running. We were ready to take her in then, but she was just too hot! She's used to sleeping out in the garage! We carry her out to pee and she immediately stopped panting. Left the door open between the garage and the mudroom and she was fine for the night.
**So we were kind of thinking this might be the last picture with Toni......
But, as of now, it is not! After much debate and asking around and crying on the phone with vets and with Chris, Toni will become an amputee! Her femur is shattered. *It looks like about 10 different pieces. But, that's really it somehow. She has a small crack in her pelvis as well, but those usually heal well. It will be difficult because she's going to need to lay around to let the pelvis heal while she should be up learning to be a three-legged dog. Cost was around $1000; so not something that was going to make us empty our savings account or anything. Vet said it was a 50/50. She is a very good candidate with no other health problems, no arthritis. She is thin and has a good frame for it. Yet, she is at least 10 years old. We told the vet where the man had found her; *Vet said "she was lying down to die. She wasn't going to try to hobble home." Chris really thought "we either say goodbye now or a few years from now...."
I have often joked that if I had the choice to put Toni to sleep or fix her up, that I wouldn't even hesitate. That it would be "see you later. Nice knowing you. Thanks for the memories." Well.....I just know Toni can do this. * I just know she won't lay around and not get up when I get that stroller out. *It will definitely be sad to not have my running buddy anymore, and to watch her sad little face as I go without her. But, I felt like all the signs were pointing to doing it: She could've had a perforated bladder from the shattered femur, she could've froze to death if no one would've found her, they could've found arthritis in the other hip when they took the x-ray, we could have babies to care for and certainly not have time to carry our dog out behind the shed to urinate, (like this picture of Chris below), for the next 2 months. (She is unable to pee anywhere else, it appears, besides this regular spot for her. We tried closer spots to the door and she starts hobbling out there herself.)
Now we're just making sure she has "life" in her and no further damage happened internally and she will have surgery Tuesday. Unless someone can convince us differently? * I really don't want to put her through all this, but I also don't want to "quit" her. She really is a great dog. We could have (hopefully) 4 or 5 more years with this nice dog or have to start all over. Toni doesn't chew things or get into the garbage or jump or bark or destroy things. She is great with our kids. The only complaints I have of Toni is that she runs away if we are not watching her and she carpets my floors with dog hair. However, those two complaints should hopefully decrease when she's down to one hind leg? Going to be much hard to get away and dart out into traffic with three legs and she'll only have one hind leg to itch with, which send the clouds of dog hair flying everywhere. Might be OK?
**Marie thought Toni would feel better if she looked at the toy catalog.
Might be the saddest moment....
We make our decision. I have the number of the man who called to say he had found Toni. Chris didn't remember his name, but when I called the man remembered she was Toni. His name is Bill. I told him about Toni and what we were going to do. *He told me exaclty where he had found her, which made me sad because the vet had said that someone had to be going very fast, like in the 40 mph range, to do this kind of damage and that there was no way they wouldn't have known they hit something. I thought that it happened on 40th Ave and I thought that speed would make sense and I thought Toni had run further. But, it happened on a road that no one should be going 40 and on a road that wouldn't have traffic lined up behind you and Toni couldn't have gone very far. ******Anyways, I told Bill what the vet had said about her going there to die and his voice cracked as he started to choke up and he said "that's exactly what I said to the other lady standing there. This dog came here to die. But, she's just such a good dog. You made my day by calling me back." I told him we would keep him posted and hopefully walk by his place this summer so he could see her.
So, if she makes it through these next couple of days, and then through surgery, and then through the recovery, and then wants to be a fun dog again.....hope we're doing the right thing on this one. Chris says Toni is officially "Erika's dog."
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