Yesterday, my dog, Lily, a sweet, loving, 6 year old black lab mix, was injured in the back yard just playing around. One minute she was playing with her ball running around the yard, and the next minute she walks up to Grady and I holding her back leg up behaving like she was in terrible pain. We both examined her foot and leg and couldn't see any visible signs of injury. She was definitely hurt and we just couldn't figure out what was wrong. Our original diagnosis was that perhaps she pulled a ligament or muscle in her leg or maybe she even broke something. We just weren't sure so we thought we would let her sleep that night and we would check her in the morning to see if she was better. Well, morning came and she had a very swollen leg and she looked like she had licked her wound throughout the night to where the fur had been worn off and her whole leg was extremely inflamed. We decided at that moment to take her to the emergency animal clinic. We were puzzled as to what had happened to Lily and then as we were discussing her symptoms, Grady had the idea that maybe she was bitten by a snake and that her leg was swollen because of the snake bite venom. Well, we ended up at the clinic on Sunday morning with a host of other nervous parents with animal issues. We waited quite a while, and finally after several hours, the vet examined Lily and basically confirmed what Grady had thought that Lily was bitten by a snake and most likely it was a copperhead.
The treatment would include antibiotics, over night stay and watch, blood work and pain medication and the prognosis was pretty good. What we didn't expect was the experience we had watching the other patients and their families waiting in the emergency room. We had been waiting for some time for the vet to come into our room, and I left to go to the car when I see our friend, Stephen, in the waiting room. He was extremely distraught because the dog he was watching for a friend had been hit by a car in front of their house and had died in his car on the way to the clinic. He was so upset. The dog had run outof their house and crossed a busy street when Stephen's wife, Jennifer had called the dog to come back and the dog listened and ran right in front of an oncoming car. Jennifer was having tremendous guilt over feeling that it was her fault for calling the dog and that she had caused the dog's demise. We all felt their pain. But interestingly enough, a lot of family members of this dog's parent's had gathered together to support each other. It was very heart-warming. As tough as it was for this family to lose a loving pet, one could still feel the overwhelming love and forgiveness for this unfortunate tragedy. I would say my dog, Lily's, snake bite, made me see that I also, needed to forgive the snake for the bite, and myself for not taking speedier action on Lily's behalf. I would never have thought that a trip to the emergency animal clinic would provide so much insight and understanding into the power of forgiveness and the importance of animals in our life. It certainly reminded me that animals are our teachers too and that in the pain of loss and or sickness, our dear pets, can remind us of what is the true importance in life....loving each other and forgiveness of our debts.