Help the dog

Last March Sully injured his back playing "Stick." I threw the stick and he ran and jumped and twisted and slid like a baseball player heading for home plate. We had so much fun down at the dead-end street by the pond that a couple of geese guard as their property. I stopped the play when I saw him limp. So we slowly walked home, Sully limping most of the way. He seemed to get better in the next couple of days. The limping stopped but he would suddenly stop walking and sit down. I thought he was playing a stubborn game but then I realized something was wrong. To make a long story short: there were several visits to the vet -- examinations, x-rays, medications, admonishments for rest and no more games like Stick and Frisbee. And I followed all the rules and gave Sully all his meds, and he got better by May. He was back to my playful and fun Sully. We had fun walking around the neighborhood and at our two favorite places - the Upper Tampa Bay Trail and a park on West Village Drive with a canal and a city kind of wilderness. We went for car rides - once to the Courtney Campbell Causeway on a beautiful sunny day where we walked along the single-lane roadway by Tampa Bay, Sully chasing seabirds as much as he could while attached to a leash and walking down cement stairs to nowhere where he splashed in the water, coming out smelling like seaweed. 

But the recuperation started coming to an end in August when Sully chased a stranger kitty in our backyard and re-injured his back, skidding to a halt when the cat scrambled up the wood fence. His back got better but then another incident happened, and another. Back to the vet. More medication. On the mend but then, being a Border Collie who jumps up and starts running, Sully again re-injured his back and the meds weren't doing much. Back to the vet. He upped the meds and suggested surgery (once again - I wouldn't hear of it earlier, thought the medication and trying to keep Sully from acting like a Border Collie would do the trick). I now have referral information on a pet surgeon in the area who may be able to help Sully. But, being unemployed and a graduate student and having spent thousands of dollars this year on Sully, three of my cats, and my aging car, plus extras like graduations, bridal showers and weddings, I'm out of money. My friend sent information on charitable organizations that assist pet owners with things like pet surgeries. Maybe I can find one of them to help Sully and me. But first I have to get him well enough so he can get in and out of my small two-door car in order to get him to the surgeon to assess his injury.

I hate that I did this to him, that I didn't stop the game of Stick when I saw him playing so aggressively. I forgot he's nine years old. I forgot that means he's a senior citizen. I forgot that senior citizenship means he can't be running and jumping and twisting like he's nine months old. One moment can change someone's life. One moment.