First of all.....I'd like to tell you that our Halloween party was a complete success...that everyone enjoyed themselves immensely and we couldn't have asked for more...
I'd like to tell you that.
Unfortunately, our party was plagued with unseasonably bad weather, lots of no-shows and a most unfortunate puppy tragedy.
I will write more about the party when I feel better I guess....it wasn't a total loss after-all but for now, all I will write about (because all I can think about) is what happened to my sister-in-law's little puppy, Mocha.
Mocha (who I've taken to calling Frappacino) is very young, and very small. She's absolutely adorable and my pups (full-grown boxers) love playing with her.
Thursday night we puppy-sat for Mocha and the dogs all got along just fine. Now....she's a feisty little thing...she will jump at my dogs and throw herself into them, into furniture, etc. She's a puppy, that's what puppies do.
Well, Friday night, the night of our party, we told my sister-in-law to bring Mocha over so she could play with our dogs and they wouldn't have to worry about crating her at their house for the night.
Everything was going well.
We started to play a game outside and so I let all the dogs out of the house.
A few minutes into our game we heard this unimaginably heart-wrenching cry.
My sister-in-law and her husband immediately ran toward the front yard. I did too...in fact...now that I think about it...everyone that was outside, and even my husband who had been inside...was racing to the front of the yard.
The crying got louder and more intense as we got closer......
My sister-in-law and her husband got to Mocha first.....
My dog was standing next to her.
At first, I thought she was crying because she was scared. I thought my dogs gave her a rattle she didn't expect and she just freaked out. But as we all encircled her we could see it was much worse than that.
Mocha's fragile little left leg was broken.....barely hanging on. She was in pain....a lot of pain. She wouldn't stop crying, and there was nothing any of us could do.
My sister-in-law was in tears...her older sister had her arm wrapped around her for comfort. My husband held our dogs back...they wanted to see what was happening, wanted to get closer to Mocha.
My husband just kept apologizing to his baby sister.
Someone ran inside to grab a towel.
A million things went through my head....did our dogs just get a little too rough? Did Gridge pounce on Mocha with too much weight? Could he see what he did? Was it Kea? Did she pounce on Mocha? Or did one of them fall on her while wrestling with the other? Mocha was infamous for throwing herself into the mix....even when our pups weren't playing with her.
Mocha was getting louder now, her crying more sporadic but more painful to all of us.
My sister-in-law and her husband picked her up in the towel and raced to their car....my mother-in-law followed them trying to direct them to the closest emergency vet.
And just like that...they were gone.
I still had to go inside and tend to our guests....I still had to put on a happy face so not to make anyone feel awkward.
I also had people spending the night.
But all I could think about was Mocha....and how guilty I felt for what happened.
I was the one that let the dogs out.
I was the one who told my sister-in-law to bring Mocha to the party.
My sister-in-law kept us updated throughout the night on Mocha's condition.....the latest on Friday night was that the femur was completely broken and that the probable options were amputation or placing pins in the leg.
Amputation?!?! Crap.
The surgeon wasn't in over the weekend, so Mocha had to stay there over the weekend with a cast and plenty of drugs.
The weekend stay alone cost them $1500.
My husband and I are trying to figure out how to help them pay for everything.
I don't even want to think about what surgery will cost.
I can't believe all of this is happening.
I haven't been able to think about anything else all weekend.
I keep hearing Mocha's cries...
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