Tetley tore his ACL. Who knew dogs could do that? I am not even sure what this is except that it seems to happen to people who play sports. And these humans get surgery. The vet was keen to put Tetley under the knife. But surgery is not cheap. And Tetley is no longer a youngster. Nor does he seem like he is pain. In fact, within 2 weeks of injury he now walks slowly on 4 legs again, albeit with a bit of a limp. When he chases squirrels (he just can’t resist) he lifts it up and uses 3 legs. Tripod is his new nickname.
While I was concerned about having him cut open for any procedure at his age (about 10), I confess that it is mostly the money. Paying for such an operation would take too big of a chunk out of my very thin cushion of savings. Maybe if he were to die without it, I would shell it out… I think. Thankfully, this is not a question I have to ask myself now. But it did get me thinking about humans and their pets and the need, at some point, to let go.
How we love our animals. By the way I wrote commercials for Tetley Tea for years.
Were they funny? I bet they were.
And I drank Tetley tea for years…
But seriously – I think it’s important to remember who we do these operations for. When our dog Dougal got cancer, I felt he would have preferred not to suffer through an operation, but my husband wanted to try it. As it happened, he died on the operating table. But the operation was for my husband to feel better…