Photo by Angela Kirk

Who would have guessed that an 8am knock on the door would lead to an emergency veterinarian visit in the late afternoon? But that is exactly what happened in a round about way, all because of a broken air conditioner.

The three installers arrived promptly in the early morning to replace Doc’s dying air conditioner.  I liked all of the men right away especially after they told Doc what a handsome dog I was.  As they busily went to work, they were nice enough to let me come down in the basement to watch and that was much more interesting than being with Doc while she worked upstairs. They were quick with the installation and within two and a half hours they were done. In fact, they were done so quickly that they had time to play with me before they went to their next job. Let me tell you, I haven’t had that much fun in a long time. They played ball with me, wrestled and chased me in the yard. By the time they left I was pooped, so I got on to Doc’s bed and took a nap.

It was afternoon when Doc woke me up. When I got out of bed I noticed that I had a pain in my leg but nothing too serious.  I followed Doc out the door to take our usual walk when she suddenly looked down and asked, “Grover are you limping?” In fact she was right, I did have a slight limp, so much to my disappointment we turned around and came home. Thinking all I needed to do was rest my leg, Doc put me back to bed.

At around 5pm she woke me up to give me supper and we were both shocked that I could now hardly bear any weight on my leg at all and it was painful. ” That’s it, Doc said with concern, we are going to the vet”. She helped me into the back of the car and off we went.

When we got to the office we texted them that we had arrived and what my symptoms were. Bless all the workers at the veterinarians  office, in about 10 minutes the doctor and the vet tech came out to the car and started to examine my leg. They lifted me out of the car and on to the pavement and had me walk  around.  Much to Doc’s relief I did not have a broken leg, but both of us were surprised by the diagnosis. Dr. Ritchie looked at us and said ” Grover has arthritis and all the playing and running around this morning caused a flair up. Now that he is an older dog this may happen from time to time. We will give him some anti-inflammatories and he can go home and rest. No jumping or running around for a few days Grover.”

After we got back in the car I  said to Doc that when Dr. Richie had referred to me as an older dog and I was surprised because I had not thought about myself that way. ” It just kind of sneaks up on you Grover, she responded. But the good thing is we all have choices about self care as we age, so what are you going to choose my sweet puppy?”

This morning when I woke up my leg was feeling a little better and I started thinking about what it means to get older and decided that it’s ok. I am going to choose to take good care of myself, keep moving and of course continue working as a therapy dog. One thing I do know is that as long as I have Doc, we can have fun getting older together.