Vega Is Home

Imbolc                                                                         Valentine Moon

Vega bayingcroppedVega is home. At Sano, the vet’s, all the vet techs had taken turns holding her head because she wanted attention and love. A sweet thing for them to do. Sano has a palpable caring for their patients and for their humans. Comforting.

Her left front leg is gone, replaced with a long z like incision and an empty space where it once attached. We were both hesitant about seeing without her leg, shock of the new. However, I began to think about it as seeing her without her cancer, without the leg that had caused her so much pain and endangered her life. That made it easier.

Once she came out, she was just Vega. There was no problem. Palmini, the vet, said we’d be surprised at how well she was getting around already. And we were. When I took her out to the car for the ride home, she threw her right leg up and pulled herself in, like she’d always done it with three legs.

Once home we took her around the back so she could enter on the bottom level, no stairs. 100008 28 10_late summer 2010_0181That was fine. However, after about 20 minutes or so of being home she wanted to go upstairs and get some water. Even though there was a water bucket out for her. She hesitated at the bottom stair, put her right foot forward, backed away, forward again, back again. Then, summoning up something, she marched right up the stairs. She came back down them, too. With me holding onto her collar, more worried than she was.

We bought an inflatable bed for her, put a quilt on it, a warm blanket and some pillows. When she got inside, she walked right past the bed and hoisted herself up on the couch. Her couch. Oh, well. Shoulda seen that coming.

There will be adjustments. She has to go out on a leash for a while and she’s not used to the leash. Our dogs have the run of our fenced backyard and have had all their lives. They walk themselves, in other words. This means she’s not used to having one of us by her side when she’s urinating or defecating. Not an easy change for her.

The important and key point here is that she is home, alive and walking on her three legs. Vega’s back.