Sam's Road to Recovery

Tomorrow, it will have been 3 1/2 months since Sam's unfortunate injury and 3 months since her surgery. I have to say, the recovery has been a cinch compared to what Kory and I had prepared ourselves for. Somehow I expected her to rebel against us, destroy everything we own and worst of all, be in agonizing pain or never fully recover. To our relief and surprise, she is healing like a champ and has embraced the extra love (by demanding constant belly rubbin'), enjoyed us all being in a small confined area together (Sam sandwiches are her favorite), kept her destruction to a only a few 'not-so-special' items (socks, socks, and more socks), and had wonderful pain meds to keep her comfortable and sleepy in order for her leg to heal thoroughly.

Realistically, it has probably been harder on us than her. The worry that she will over do it and never be back to her old crazy self, or just simply be bored, kept us on our toes.  Though when not worrying, we'd find humor in personifying her new "needs" as she is surely coming the most spoiled dog-kid ever known to man!  If you have a free hand and you're not using it to massage or scratch her, she'd let you know with a nudge from a paw or her cold puppy nose!

Kory took Sam to get her final set of x-rays this week. Good news - she is healing wonderfully! (Thank God!) She will have to go back in 4 weeks to get her final checkup. At that time, we will expect to be given the "All Clear!" and for her to be released back into normal 'dogdom'... where she's welcome to go on long, exhausting walks and maybe even the occasional trip to the off-leash dog park (if Kory and I can put our fear of another accident aside long enough to get her through the gate).

This experience has made me realize how crazy in love we really are with our little fur-baby and that the sky is the limit when it comes to making sure she has the best life possible! 

There's nothing more adorable than a big, "tough" guy all cuddled up with his big, "tough" dog - and we've seen a whole lot of this thanks to this horrific event!  If we didn't know better, we might think that Sam wouldn't change things if she could... she's certainly become the center of our universe through this whole thing, if she wasn't already! :)

 

(Left) January, 2008  Baby Samantha all snuggled in Kory's lap while he studies for grad school exams

(Right) April, 2010  Big Baby Samantha resting her recovering limb, all snuggled under Kory's legs, just days before he received the news that he had been accepted into Pitt's PhD program.