Wounded Soldier

We had a medical emergency last week, a member of the family needed 3 stitches and a drain tube to close a gaping 2 inch wound in their side, the Doc commented, that’s one tough dog. ..

Poor old Riley, our German shepherd suffered this horrendous wound while chasing "the ball" in the back yard. Arwen our other dog was lying in the path of Riley and nipped him as he went by, he gave a little whimper but we thought nothing more about it. About half an hour later my wife spotted a "wet" patch on his side and then nearly vomited when she pulled the fur back and unveiled the bloody gash in his side. Arwen is still a puppy and has some very sharp teeth and must have just got him right as he raced past, so it was off to the vet.

They shaved him and cleaned the wound which was even worse with the fur shaved off and then the vet came in and took him to stitch him up and put in a drain tube to prevent infection. All he got was a local anaesthetic, which didn’t work on all the wound and he couldn’t be sedated any because he has anti seizure medicine and they might have reacted so my big brave dog had to tough it out with barely a whimper. The Vet was obviously impressed, commenting over and over how surprised she was that he coped so well, I must say this came as some surprise to me, you see Riley is the biggest wimp I have ever seen… sure he is a 90 –100 lb jet black Shepherd and looks scary as shit but if you so much as touch his collar, bump him as he barges past or heaven forbid step on his foot and he will squeal like a stuck pig.

It’s actually embarrassing, two days ago while I was walking round the block we passed a man gardening, Riley’s interest was peaked and he cut in front of me tangling with my legs, I barely touched him but he let out a yelp and whimper that made it sound like I had set about him with a knife. The man looked up in horror to see what kind of abuse I was inflicting on my dog, fortunately my daughter was with me and she asked me what happened and I was able to say, loudly enough for Mr. gardener to hear that I had stepped on his foot, which I hadn’t, I actually had to talk it up so my dog wouldn’t look bad!

So the total irony here is that should I step on his foot he will yelp and cry but bite a big lump out of his side, stitch it, insert a drain tube, remove said tube all with minimal anaesthetic and not a sound… bravest wimp I ever met.