I never meant to do you wrong

Ick, I feel really bad today. It snowed a lot yesterday so we decided to take the dogs to the park for some dog fun in the snow.

I found out that Peanut was interested in snowballs. I'd throw them and he'd run off in that same direction, and then look confused when he couldn't find them after they hit the ground and fell apart. It was hilarious.

And then I threw one up in the air, over his head. He jumped up to catch it, and then landed on his back. It looked awful. But because he's the Peanut, he just got up, limped a little, and then a few min later, walked around fine.

So we thought he might just be sore, but mostly ok. Then at home he took a nap (as usual) and when he got up he was limping again. Spike already had a vet appointment today (for a regular procedure we do not discuss in polite company) so we asked if we could bring Peanut in too.

The doctor looked at him, poked at his knee and said she felt some swelling there. Sad. She prescribed some Rimadyl (which, to make matters worse, has some nasty side effects in a small percentage of dogs) and told us to keep him as still as possible for the next week. If he's still limping in a week, they need to do XRays under sedation. Big dogs run the risk of tearing their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) just like football players. She suspects that if he doesn't get better in a week. And the treatment for that is a major surgery. Peanut's friend Ginger has had that surgery twice since there's a huge chance that the second ligament tears after the first one.

I feel so awful about it. I shouldn't have thrown that stupid snowball up high like that. But I guess we'll just take it day by day and hope it's just a sprain.

Norman is coming over tonight - he's Aunt Susie's fuzzy gray dog, and normally, he and Peanut would have a good time wrestling. But this weekend will be a quiet one. Maybe Spike will play with him. Poor Peanut.