Oscar the Wonder Dog

It's been a tough week up here. Our little Oscar ruptured a disc in his back sometime over the weekend and by Monday afternoon had lost the use of both his hind legs. It broke our hearts to watch him try to walk. He didn't know what was wrong with him and neither did we. We took him to an emergency vet in Poulsbo and they tried a treatment of steroids overnight. In the morning they told us there was no improvement, so we had a tough decision to make. There is a vet hospital in Lynnwood, (just north of Seattle), that does back surgery on dachshunds all the time and has very good success. I don't think I have to tell you that this is not cheap. The thing is, there is a pretty small window of time that you have to act on an injury like this, so they told me to think about it, but not too long. They needed to know in an hour or so if I was going to come and get Oscar and move him to Lynnwood for the surgery. After that, it might not be worth it. The kids were in school and LuAnn was at work, so off I drove to Poulsbo, mulling this over. I talked to LuAnn a couple of times, and my good friend Jim Mead, who is very active in animal rescue. By the time I got to the Hood Canal bridge I had made a decision. I called the vet and told her we were going to go for it. Oscar has been a big part of this family for 5 years and there's no way I could just give up on him. So, with one hand on the wheel and the other holding his head, I drove (and ferried) the little guy to Lynnwood. They were ready for us when we got there. I was so dang choked up I could hardly talk to the tech who briefed me on the operation. She was very reassuring and told me the doctor was very good and had done the same operation on her dachshund. The doctor called us later that night and told us the surgery went very well and he was cautiously optimistic about Oscar's chances. Yesterday we got the good news that Oscar was standing up! They are very confidant that he is going to be fine, after a few months or rehabilitation. We all breathed a big sigh of relief. We are hoping to bring him home on Friday.