As most of you know, today we start the lengthy process of getting our beagle Sam back on track to being the goofy, glad to greet the world, ever-starving, flappy earred mess that we love and adore. Sam recently tore her cranial cruciate ligament (CCL), which is a lot like your ACL – it’s one of two ligaments that stabilizes her leg and, simply put, keeps her bones from shifting in ways they shouldn’t shift.

Last night, the surgeon went in and examined her medial and lateral meniscus for tears (for you science nerds) and made the determination on how to address any that were seen, then they basically attached a piece of nylon that went from her femur (that nice big fat thigh bone) to her tibia (her shin for all practical purposes). This nylon cord will act as her new CCL where scar tissue will form around it and her knee will then become more stable. (Ang, if you’re reading and I screwed up the basics or if you have any recommendations on how to better explain, let me know and I’ll update.)

In about an hour, I’ll call and find out when I can meet with the surgical technician so we can talk about our next steps. From there, I can bring one very sleepy beagle with a naked leg and a head in a cone home. Jay put together a new crate for her that’s on wheels – since dogs are pack animals, she’ll get to ride all over the house with the pack doubtlessly wondering where I learned to drive and cursing the person who didn’t demand that crate pushers be licensed.

A huge thanks to her vet, Dr. Julien (and all the vets/staff in our little home town – they’re a great group of folks) and her surgeon, Dr. Caplan. When I left Sam at Dr. Caplan’s surgical center, I felt that she was not only in great hands and they were going to carefully monitor Sam through her recovery, but at the end of the end of the day we wouldn’t actually have sucked Sam’s soul out. (Soul sucking is a huge issue with me, because as most of you know, we adopted a pretty special girl who has her own issues. I really wish I’d known her previous owners so I could quite simply ask “what the fuck?”) An even bigger thanks to Dr. Glasgow, who will always be Ang to me. From California, Ang helped me find the best of the best here in Austin and then spoke to her colleagues who happened to by friends with our surgeon (sychronicity) and who also spoke rather highly of her.

I have been very fortunate that I’m surrounded by very talented friends who excel in their chosen fields and thank GOD they have no taste in friends and occasionally slum so I can pick their brains for information.

… and that’s all you’re getting of “sane” me for awhile. Next up, a rant! My favorite!