vampire bill's climb

Hi all, Vampire Bill here, I stole the puter from my mom when she wasn’t looking (which isn’t often!) But she had the nerve to leave me with Dad for 8 hours yesterday! She says she had to go on a field trip with my oldest sister, but I think she should’ve stayed home with me!  She says I need to learn to stay with other people and I do love my Dad but it’s just not the same! He tried really hard tho, I think he’s even  more over-protective than my mom! They are always worrying about me, telling me to slow down, don’t they know I’m a high energy puppy and can’t sit still?! There’s just so much to see, do and play with!

They told me I only have to rest for another week, Monday I go to get my staples out! I’m really excited about that! It’ll be great to see my friends there again 🙂 They were all really nice to me and still call to see how I’m doing. Nights are a bit rough for me, now that they took some of my pain meds away (mom says it’s because I’m overdoing it, but I don’t believe her) It’s so hard to stay inside when it’s gorgeous out.  I miss my horse friends. Mom brought me out yesterday, but she carried me and wouldn’t let me down when I wanted to say hi to them.  Piper, the rescue horse they brought home even let me sit on her back for a bit, so I guess it wasn’t a total loss…but I still wanted to run with them again! Mom says when I get better she’ll bring me back out and I can watch while she rides….We’ll see 😉 I don’t think she realizes that I’ll be right there with her and feeling fine!

Silly humans always trying to keep me from playing! My big sisters left on the bus this morning, I tried to get on too, the bus driver even said I could! I wish I could go to school, the girls have so much fun there, I know I’d be the star of the class! Maybe when I feel better I’ll be able to go say hi to all the kids!

I’m so glad I got to read your stories! Mom likes to sit with me at night and we look at all the cool dogs here! there’s soo many of you! I hope I get to meet other dogs like me soon 🙂 Those silly 4 legged dogs don’t have anything on us! Alright, mom’s giving me the “eye” I’d better go pretend I like sitting for a few minutes 🙂

Well we are into our 5th day of recovery after Vampire Bill’s front amputation. It’s been a long emotional journey so far and it’s only been a week since the accident. VB is an Australian Shepherd, only 3 months old. He’s been a part of our family from the moment I set eyes on him. He fit in so perfectly with all of our mismatched animals from the start, even loving our kitten (Pew, who will try anyone’s patience) 🙂 and Maynard, the current cat king of the castle. He even curled up with him, which is just adorable!

One night I was on the phone with my gramma and took him for a walk, I brought him back into the house and let the kids play with him while I was talking. I opened the door for a split second to grab something and Pew raced out the door, before I could close it, VB ran out after her.

In less than a minute our lives were changed. Pew ran across the street and VB of course chased her. We live on a back road so there’s never much traffic, but wouldn’t you know it, a car came along just as he started crossing back over. Luckily the driver slowed down when he saw me, but it wasn’t enough. VB’s front right paw was shattered. After scooping him up I called my husband and we took him to the local vet ER….after calling my father in law to watch the 3 kids and borrow the credit card (thank goodness he’s so very helpful and awesome) Not many people would drop everything for a puppy emergency in the middle of the night. When we got to the vet’s they took him back for surgery…they tried to set it the best they could, but we’d have to call a surgeon the next day. Diagnosis? Probably amputation, they could try to save his leg, but being a puppy he wouldn’t hold still for very long, certainly not for the 3 month recovery they were calling for.

The next day I packed up my baby and we drove to Richmond (an hour away) Looking back, I should’ve called a friend. It wasn’t an easy trip to begin with and I got lost…..2 hours later I finally pulled over (i’m also stubborn) and called the surgeon’s office. the women there were so sweet and kind! they helped me figure out where I was and how to get there.  When we finally arrived, they were like family. Vampire Bill was immediately surrounded by them all and loved on 🙂 The vet even sat on the floor with us, since if I moved VB would too and it was painful for him. Dr. Suess was the kindest man, he explained it all to me. Not wanting to tell me he had to amputate, I knew what that look was when he first walked in, so I said it. As a family we had talked about it and knew that we would much rather have a 3 legged alive dog than one that was dead. He’s already been such a blessing to our family, there was no question that we would do whatever we could for him. Thankfully my father in law saved the day again monetarily. He loaned us the huge amount with no timeline for paying it back (I’m a stay at home mom and hubby works for a non-profit organization…we are broker than broke.)

When the surgeon called that evening he said that everything went really well, there was no way he could’ve saved the leg. It didn’t matter at all, the only thing I heard was that VB was doing great. VB had a hard time staying still on his sleepover at the vets, so they just took him out of the crate and held him 🙂 It felt so good to know he was in such wonderful hands.

He came home the next day, our biggest challenge is getting him to stay still. He desperately misses his runs in the am, trips to the bus stop with the kids and trailing after the horses with me. He is recovering really well, but he still has bad times. thankfully they are getting fewer and fewer. I keep telling him, just a little longer and he’ll be back to normal activities 🙂 I sat with him outside today for a few minutes while he was on his allowed potty break, but then we came back inside. I think the sunshine cheered him up some.

So that is the start to our story. I’d been digging online for any and all information I could before and after his surgery and stumbled on your website. It’s such an amazing/wonderful, informative place. Thank you! you will never know how much this has helped us on our journey. -Dani (Vampire Bill’s mom)