Argggh. I’m so frustrated right now. I’m mad at Bacio. We were doing so well this morning. We got some of his home therapy exercises in, had some play time with Yuki, and then we were off for a stroll. The weather is in the mid 30’s today, so off to the park we went. We meandered through the areas of the park that weren’t as muddy, and the dogs caught up on their neighborhood sniffs. Everything had to be smelled, every tree, every odd-shaped grass clump, anything larger than a twig, and even just the air in general.
I didn’t know how much activity Bacio would be able to handle in one day. To be safe we took a couple breaks on the park benches throughout our adventure. He did so well, even trotted a bit putting his leg down! Even after walking about a mile around the park, he was still walking great on the way home.
Once we got to our place, I had to unlock all the doors and gates to get into my building, there are a surprising number of locks. On the last door to get inside, as I was turning the key, out of nowhere I get jerked backwards and lose my footing.
A little 8-month-old rottie pup was walking by with his owner and Bacio got so excited about it. He tried to run down the six steps of the front porch by himself. Besides the fact that he’s not supposed to do stairs by himself, the other glaring problem was that he was still on his leash… which was still on my wrist, and obviously still attached to me. He got about halfway down the stairs before the slack was gone, stopping him mid-motion.
I honestly can’t tell you if he totally fell or just stumbled because my back was to him, but he wasn’t standing up straight anymore. I walked him down the rest of the stairs and he was limping again. As he settled a bit, he was putting the leg down lightly. I put the leash under his belly as a sling to help him up the rest of the stairs. Getting up to the apartment was ok, he got inside, and did this hybrid run-hop to his bed and immediately laid down. The leg was still bearing his weight when he’d touch it down every now and then. When he’s at therapy, his muscles and joints build up a lot of heat, so I tried to see if that was the case today, but he wasn’t really much warmer than normal.
My fingers are crossed that he’s finally getting stronger now, and that this little slip won’t affect him too much. I really feel like the moment we are seeing decent progress, something terrible happens and we’ve taken two steps back. Some days I wonder if he’s ever going to be walking again. Then I get mad at him for being such a doofus sometimes.
