A recent story from The Associated Press, "Dealing with devastating pet injuries"(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24258707/) stirred within me deep emotions of the day I almost made a fatal mistake. My first initial thought when I was told Frankie might be permanently paralyzed is that I would have to put her down. The MSNBC story talks about how historically when an animal becomes severely injured we put that animal to sleep. We believe they can’t possibly overcome adversity. That thought is changing and changing rapidly.
I believe what is most important to remember is when an animal becomes paralyzed or loses a limb they don’t deal with emotions as humans do. They don’t feel sorry for themselves or wonder why this happened to them. They simply adapt, and quite quickly most of the time. As humans, we must let them continue to be dogs and do what they do best. We must also instill in ourselves the value our animal is teaching us, which is to accept what is, and continue on with life.
There is not a day goes by that I wish I had done things differently for Frankie. She taught me to put on my patience hat, roll with the punches and face it all with grace and dignity. Frankie does just that as she climbs aboard her little cart each morning and rolls through the day as if this was the way it always was. Roll on!