Geralyn Dawson asks HONEY, HAVE YOU SQUEEZED THE DOG LATELY?
It’s a question asked all over America...or not. However, it’s asked in my house every day.
Ten years ago, a two-year-old dachshund named Lucy joined the family. Eight years ago, she jumped down from a chair and injured her spine, leaving her paralyzed from mid-back down. We rushed her to the vet and he suggested we put her down. My grade-school daughter cried, my middle-school son cried. Even the vet cried. My husband and I looked at each other and asked if we had any alternatives.
We ordered a wheelchair for Lucy and the rest is Dawson family history.
The situation has its downside. Lucy is a high-maintenance dog. It’s not fun squeezing her bladder three times a day–she has no bowel or bladder control and she needs to be emptied to prevent infection–and I get tired of washing the towels she’s slept with each morning. Our vet bills are ridiculous. Yet the rewards of being Lucy’s owners are truly priceless.
I’ve watched this dog pull herself out of a short depression following her accident and go back to being her old happy self chasing birds and squirrels around the backyard.(Since being injured, she’s managed to catch five birds. How stupid are birds to let a dog in a wheelchair sneak up on them?) What a lesson for me about making lemonade out of life’s lemons. I watch the joy she brings to the residents at the retirement home when I walk her over to visit my parents. We live on a golf course and our backyard is surrounded by an iron fence. Play backs up at our hole because golfers always stop to marvel over Lucy, and we’ve made new friendships we treasure because of it.
As my son entered high school, he discovered that being the owner of a disabled animal had a unexpected benefit. Always an enterprising young man, John used Lucy to meet girls. She was, he told us, a chick magnet. He’d take her to the park, to ball games, street festivals, and the females swarmed. Because he couldn’t take her with him everywhere, he carried a picture of her in his wallet. John will graduate from college in December and while his pick-up techniques are more sophisticated now--he’s been through more girlfriends than a romance novel rake--he still carries a picture of Lucy. I don’t know whether to be embarrassed or proud…
I’m blogging about Lucy because I’m looking for advice. John came home from college last summer with a boxer puppy--have you figured out that John’s my problem child?--and Lucy and Sly became friends. When Sly went back to school, she missed him. I missed him. It was fun having a four-legged dog around the house, and because my youngest left for college, too, my nest truly feels empty these days.
So, we’re thinking about getting another dog. We’ve always owned dachshunds, but I’m open to other breeds. What do y’all think? Are we fools? What sort of dog would you recommend for a household of two empty-nesters and an aging, wheelchair-bound wonder dachshund?
Warmly, Geralyn Dawson Visit Geralyn’s website!