Saturday

This is a blog about a day that was great until 3:00 in the afternoon, and then it went south in a hurry.  The picture above was taken just after we returned from the Dunedin Pet Supply with some new toys for Toby. As you can see, he was very excited to see what he got.

A ball toss moments later sent Toby after it, but the floor to ceiling column in the living room got in his way. He rushed straight into it with his shoulder, grunted, took a step and yelped, and continued to limp until he got the ball.

 

After a couple of minutes of massaging his shoulder and leg, we could tell that it was a Saturday-vet-emergency-worthy visit, something that we had managed to avoid during Dee Dee's long illness.

 

Covid-19 protocol for all vets is to call and wait outside until someone comes out to get your dog. The diagnosis is a sprain/fracture, the doctor reported over the phone while we waited in the parking lot. The prognosis is to try pain meds and anti-inflamatory meds first before turning to X-rays. The ER vet said that puppies usually don't break bones because they are still soft, although they CAN break bones or chip them. We will know more in a couple of days, depending on how he heals or not. In the meantime, he is restricted to potty breaks and bed rest.

 

He is out of it. He has refused food and water. But he's comfortable and sleeping, which is about the best thing for him now. We moved him in his bed from the dining room (scooting it across the floor), but once we got to the office he hopped out. It wasn't worth it to get him back in his bed.

We are both bummed about his injury. A 5-month old puppy should not have to experience this. Of course, we blame ourselves for not being more careful. No more playing catch in the house. The floors are too slippery and he's a clumsy puppy.

We play catch in the backyard, but the sides are not fenced in, and a couple of times he's run to the front yard because he sees something he's interested in. We need to complete the fencing or else come up with other activities. 

He gets two doses of pain medication over the next 48 hours. The ER vet said to follow up with our regular vet on Monday to see what to do next.

 

This is how beautiful our day began.

 

We played a little fetch in the back yard. He found an avocado seed and preferred that over the tennis ball.

I took a walk before lunch while John continued to nurse his bruised toe from yesterday's mishap.

 

I like the Roseate Spoonbill's reflection in the water. 

 

 

I never get tired of seeing these beautiful egrets.

 

Low tide in Curlew Creek, looking east; the Dunedin Golf Course is on the right. 

 

 

I took this picture from the bridge in the picture on top of this one. The bridge is part of Stirling Park.

This is Curlew Creek looking west. That's the bridge for Alt. 19 (Bayshore Blvd.).

 

 

I continued walking the Pinellas Trail to Curlew Road, then walked east on Curlew until I got to the cut-through to our neighborhood, crossing Curlew Creek again further to the east, as seen above.

 

We had lunch and then I took a bike ride out to Honeymoon Island. The Trail was pretty busy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was 64 degrees. The sun felt so good that I decided to continue the ride downtown before returning home.

There were lots of people out and about downtown. 

As I rounded the corner to home, I ran into John on his way to the pet store with Toby. He circled back and met me at home so I could go with them. 

We got home around 3:00 and that's when Toby got injured.

John had cooked some chicken in the crock pot so we could make chicken souvlaki like Tula's on the Trail in Tarpon Springs. Somehow with our unplanned emergency vet visit and altered mood, our dinner didn't measure up to the famous Tula's. Even though I have not lived here permanently pre-Covid, I did visit, and I really miss going out to restaurants.

 

This is a map of my bicycle ride this afternoon.

 

I told John that this is one of those days that feels really bad, and it would be easy to spiral down into depression and recriminations, maybe even unavoidable. Everything looks bad, and you wonder if you are ever going to catch a break.

 

But the next day dawns and you have renewed energy and hope to tackle the problems and disappointments at hand. It usually doesn't feel as bad the next day. 

 

The world is in the middle of the worst pandemic in the last 100 years, people are hungry and tired, and the president is defying democracy, so our problems are small.

 

Miles walked: 4.5

Miles biked: 16.75