It has been another 5 months since my last entry. The kitchen is now complete and has been for a while, our visitors have come and gone and life was about to get back to normal when Nibbles our 8 year old boxer dog had an encounter with a cow, Yes, a real live cow on top of MT.Hobson, which is an extinct volcano very close to home and where Nibbles loves to go for walks and runs.
Nibbles had been very well behaved on that walk, keeping close to my husband and I, and avoiding the cows. At the sight of another dog on the same mountain we gave him permission to go and play with this dog and dear Nibbles instead of going straight to the dog decided to take a detour and go via the cow. He was bowled over by the cow who then just walked away leaving Nibbles to feel very sorry for himself. After checking to see that he had no obvious broken bones or external injuries we encouraged him to get up and walk, he was very reluctant to and we felt it was his pride that had been injured. We eventually got home and we noticed that he was unsteady on his feet and stumbling.It was then we realised that he maybe had a spinal cord injury.
To cut a long story short the next week was spent with vets, MRI scans , anaesthesia and surgery to his spinal cord. Nibbles did not want to be in hospital and it broke our hearts every time we went to visit and later had to leave to just see him retract back into his shell. If only we could explain that this was an attempt to fix him! He not only lost a lot of weight, his tail wag disappeared and his normally happy and boistrous self has changed into a quiet, depressed dog.
Nibbles is now back home and is slowly returning to normal, he has not gained total control of his limbs yet and is slowly improving, stumbling less. His mental state though is going to take much longer than the physical side to heal. He is not sure whether he can trust us still, whether he is home to stay or will get taken away again. We can see it in his sad eyes which ask "Can I trust you ?"
How do we explain to our beloved pet that he is so loved and we are there to look after him no matter what? How do we regain his trust again?
Our only hope is that time will heal the emotional wounds too.
Nibbles had been very well behaved on that walk, keeping close to my husband and I, and avoiding the cows. At the sight of another dog on the same mountain we gave him permission to go and play with this dog and dear Nibbles instead of going straight to the dog decided to take a detour and go via the cow. He was bowled over by the cow who then just walked away leaving Nibbles to feel very sorry for himself. After checking to see that he had no obvious broken bones or external injuries we encouraged him to get up and walk, he was very reluctant to and we felt it was his pride that had been injured. We eventually got home and we noticed that he was unsteady on his feet and stumbling.It was then we realised that he maybe had a spinal cord injury.
To cut a long story short the next week was spent with vets, MRI scans , anaesthesia and surgery to his spinal cord. Nibbles did not want to be in hospital and it broke our hearts every time we went to visit and later had to leave to just see him retract back into his shell. If only we could explain that this was an attempt to fix him! He not only lost a lot of weight, his tail wag disappeared and his normally happy and boistrous self has changed into a quiet, depressed dog.
Nibbles is now back home and is slowly returning to normal, he has not gained total control of his limbs yet and is slowly improving, stumbling less. His mental state though is going to take much longer than the physical side to heal. He is not sure whether he can trust us still, whether he is home to stay or will get taken away again. We can see it in his sad eyes which ask "Can I trust you ?"
How do we explain to our beloved pet that he is so loved and we are there to look after him no matter what? How do we regain his trust again?
Our only hope is that time will heal the emotional wounds too.
