Someone was jealous of Jenn and I going to the doctor.

So Thursday night Jenn says aloud to the house "Bedtime". This means that Minnesota (our dog, aka Minne pronounced Mini) and Michigan (our cat aka Igan--pronounced Eeegan) must run around and chase each other because they have to expel their extra energy. The go flying into the dining room and we hear a loud yelp from Minne who comes racing back into the living room on three legs. Now this isn't uncommon. She is part German Shepard and will quite often pop out her knee or her hip.

But when we started to rub her down it didn't appear that either was out of place. Minne is the kind of dog who will only yelp once, and would not even flinch if we were to cut her toes off one by one. Loyalty I guess? So we decide to wait over night and see how she is doing in the morning.

Friday morning she is still being a three legged dog. Call the vet and get an appointment. Take her in and he begins to pinch, poke and prod every inch of her leg. No flinching, no yelping, no nothing. He determines that nothing is broken, his diagnosis is a torn ACL.

If it is only torn partially, it should heal itself in a few weeks. If it is a total tear, she would need surgery to repair it. This cannot be a total tear. She's old and I can't have her going through six months of miserable recovery that will only wear out her other hip and leg. He gave her a cortisone shot and some anti-inflammatory pills and sent us home with instructions of no stairs while unassisted.

She already seems to be doing much better. She will put some pressure on her leg, like just putting her toes down. And yesterday she was following us around the house, where as Friday she just whined huge fits if you left the room. So we have our fingers crossed that she recovers on her own. She has to, the surgery will only do her more harm, and neither of us want to put her through surgery, or a lifetime of pain, that isn't fair to her. But we don't want to make the other decision either.