Charlie loves being on the deck!
Our new little family headed north for a week long vacation in the north woods of Wisconsin yesterday. Alan and I rented a lake house with plans to do lots of hiking, kayaking, fishing and exploring. One of the special things about this upcoming week, other than relaxing and enjoying time away from work, is that it's also Charlie's seventh birthday today. Our only goal this morning was to have fun and celebrate Charlie.
Lots of stairs! That's Charlie and Alan at the end of the dock... so tiny!
The morning started off rainy, so we played a bunch of fetch with Charlie's tennis ball inside. Alan even used her ball launcher toy, bouncing the ball off the floor so she would jump up to catch it. She was having a blast and then decided it was time for a little nap.
After a while, she was ready for round 2 and knew that the ball launcher was up on the fireplace mantle. She tried hard to figure out how to get up there to get her ball, but by then the skies had cleared so we decided to go down to the dock to cast a few lures and see what the lake had to offer for fishing.
See her ball launcher on the mantle? She's addicted!
Charlie watched Alan fish while trying to figure out if she was supposed to "fetch" the lure or try to convince him to throw her ball. Alan caught a couple bass right away and showed his catch to Charlie.
This is the first time she's ever been fishing, so she was naturally curious! She stuck her nose right in the fish's mouth while we were trying to take a picture. Then, as Alan released the fish back into the water, Charlie dove in after it, trying to figure out where it went! I guess we're going to have to work on teaching her about "catch and release."
She swam in circles next to the dock trying to figure out this mystery. It was super adorable.
But then she started getting annoying trying to play ball again, so I called her back up the hill to throw her ball and give Alan a minute to himself to fish without Charlie trying to instigate playtime.
She had a great time running around the hillside fetching her ball and sniffing out chipmunk trails; just a normal day of playing. The weather was momentarily perfect... a slight wind stirring up waves on the lake, leaves slowly drifting off the colorful trees, the smell of fall in the air and a happy dog enjoying her birthday.
Alan eventually joined us and unfortunately, after one particular throw of the tennis ball, Charlie dove for it and hit a rock with her front teeth.
I froze.
And then I ran to her to see if she was okay. She was licking her lips and as I grabbed her mouth to look in, blood ran into my hand. Ruh-roh.
Sure enough, two of her front teeth were pushed in and although they weren't loose, it was evident they were in the wrong place.
We immediately called the local veterinary office and they were able to get us in within 30 minutes. I was really glad that I had packed her rabies vaccine certificate and medical history. After a quick exam, the vet gave us the possible options and probable outcomes. By noon, I was signing consent forms and hugging Charlie good-bye for the afternoon.
It was an easy decision to extract the two teeth. It's just not always so easy to give consent to put your dog under general anesthetic when you know that sometimes dogs die under anesthetic. I was worried, but I knew it was the right decision.
Four hours later, we picked up our slightly drugged dog and brought her back to the cabin. She's doing good and already has her appetite back. She had a fractured tooth and another fractured socket, so in total she lost two teeth. It turned out to be the right decision since the broken teeth would have eventually gotten abscessed and caused more trouble. She'll be on painkillers and antibiotics for the rest of the week too.
We'll have to limit her activity and keep her from chewing on sticks and balls for the rest of the week. It's going to be hard, but at least she's okay. I guess things could always be worse. I'm grateful our little family is together and we still have the rest of the week to enjoy our vacation... just a little differently than we originally planned.
**Thank you very much to Hayward Animal Hospital for getting us in so quickly and taking great care of our baby!**