Wow, it's really quiet in here...

At the end of last year I did a little post about Ben hurting his foot when he was running around with his "sister." Lesson learned...don't try to keep up with a greyhound Ben, it's just not doable.

Anyways, after the initial injury he seemed to be getting better but every once in a while he would start limping again. After another play date (this time with our neighbor's Great Dane) he started hopping around on three legs for at least an hour. He was still wagging his tail and acting like nothing was the matter but I decided to take him back to the Vet.

The vet took one look at his knee and said that his patella was out of socket. And not only was it out of socket, but it was popping out on it's own...he needed surgery. I had my normal typical reaction of blinking back tears and trying not to bawl like a baby. Meanwhile Ben was completely oblivious and rolling around on the ground like usual.

After I got home I emailed the veterinarian  that I trust the most to get a second opinion. Trust me when I say that the last thing I wanted to do was have Ben go through surgery, especially right when the weather is getting nice out. But Carey said that it would be smart to get it done asap, to avoid any other injuries.

Which is why I'm blogging from home on a Monday...today was the surgery day.

Just like humans having surgery, Ben couldn't eat after midnight. We let him sleep in as late as possible, but finally I had to drag him out of bed at 9 a.m.

Clearly he takes after me in the sleep department :-)

Ben LIVES for breakfast and dinner time, and I felt like a big meanie not giving him any food. I'm pretty sure he could tell that something was up because in the car he started shaking and wouldn't look at me...

Once we were actually inside the doggy hospital it was better. The two vet assistants were giving him lots of attention and he was back in happy, uncontrollable dog wagging mode. However, I'm pretty sure he won't be in that mode when I pick him up tomorrow.

Now I'm back at home and it's so quiet here. Ben isn't loud, but you can always hear his tail wagging, or very loud snoring, or nylabones sliding across the floor.  I took today off from work to drop him off, so now it's just me and Naomi sitting inside on a rainy day. Yes there are a million things that I should do, but I will probably take a nap. It is a recovery day and it's nasty out. And cleaning is out of the question :-)

So...there is great, good, and bad news to all of this...

The great news is that Ben has a good surgeon and according to him this isn't as bad of a surgery as the other types he has to do on dogs (which I hope I never have to experience). And when we rescued Ben we also bought him health insurance, which I highly, highly recommend. So far it's been a lifesaver.

The good news is that I'm mostly racing my singlespeed this year. Which means less parts that I need to replace. Knocking on wood here....

The bad news is that Ben has to be on restricted activity...for about 8-10 weeks. I think at first it won't be a problem because I imagine that he will mostly sleep but once he starts to recover it's going to be a challenge. His signature move is running full speed ahead at the couch and then doing a round-about off of the back.  I'm seriously considering just moving it out of the room for the time being. That way there will be no temptation.