Yesterday Perri and I went hiking with our friends and their poodle Daphnee. I was excited to explore the Turkey Hill Trail, which I hiked semi-frequently when I lived in the area, but I had not hiked it since the new rails to trails was added to the area. It used to be a point to point trail, so you either had to hike out so far and turn back around to get back to your car, or get someone to leave a car at the other end. I discovered that it still is that way, but my friends and I also found a small connector trail that looped down the mountain past some waterfalls and right back onto the Enola Trail. It's a super hike to spend some time climbing up the mountain, visit the big wind turbines, walk along the ridgetop and then descend back into the woods and onto an easy two miles of rail trail for the return.
Perri did not jump up or down from here on her own, rest assured!
To make the day even more exciting was that I knew Perri could hike off leash finally. It was utterly terrifying for me to unclip that leash! Perri wasted no time getting back to her old self, flying around and pouncing and barking, sniffing and digging and finding old bones and carcasses, splashing through and laying down in mountain streams. She was in her glory and while I was afraid, I know that it is another time where I need to release the control and let Perri get back to being herself. Let her get back to being strong in all ways. And while I was scared to let her move free and fast, I was also in heaven and had tears in my eyes a few times.
We also got to return to one of Perri's favorite games, woodland "parkour". Perri loves to hop up on stuff and that was another thing that was off limits when she was injured (mostly because of the hopping back down, but I didn't want to overwork the joint in anyway.) I asked Perri to hop onto posts, rocks, logs, stumps and she was happy to play along!
My friend told me we did 23K steps according to her FitBit! Wow! Perri must have done at least 10k pounces. What a beautiful winter hike it was. How beautiful it is to be on the other side of this shoulder injury.
It has been eight weeks since Perri's initial progress check by our rehab vet and she was due for another. Perri has been continuing on the underwater treadmill weekly, we have been increasing the time of her walks, we have been hiking, we have been increasing freedom. That has all been a little scary for me! Perri's shoulder felt great on her first progress check, but the injury can be finicky and Dr P wanted more conditioning and strengthening.
On Perri's very first assessment exam, the soft tissue on her shoulders was 23cm on the injured shoulder, and 26 on the left. On her first recheck, she was 26cm on the right side and 28cm on the left side. Tonight she was a whopping 33cm on both sides, no difference - so she is officially using both sides equally.
Dr P felt the wrist, elbow and shoulder on both sides. All is looking great! Neither shoulder is abducting away from the body at all, and she gave the right shoulder a thorough test to be certain. Everything feels strong and tight.
And that's it. We are allowed to return to normal activity! She would like Perri to not be loose in the ice and snow this season yet (which I was already planning on.) I told her that I do plan to wait until March to retrain agility and she said that was fine - but that Perri's body is strong enough for whenever we choose to return. She suggested working tight circles on the flat in the mean time.
Off leash hiking! Pouncing! Pottying in the yard with no leash! (provided there is no snow.)
It felt like this day would never come. It's been four long months and we are so happy to be on the other side.
Perri and I went for a longish hike again today. At this time of year, Sundays are golden because no hunting is permitted on Sundays - so no need to stay off of the trails or wear blaze orange (I still usually wear a bright colored something. Just in case.)
We returned to Lake Ontelaunee and finished the geoart series that I have been working on since late November - it was bittersweet! We found some other caches along the way with the day's total being 29. My favorite cache was called "Hey Hey We're the Monkeys" and it was a multi stage. Three different "monkey" containers were hidden through out the woods and the "final" cache was a banana. Cute and creative!
I scoped out coordinates on the closed off bridge and will be placing a geocache called "Poodle Medicine" there in honor of all of the strength-building hiking that Perri has been able to do there during the last month. Exciting!
Couldn't resist a repeat of the photo I took with Molly. The light wasn't good.
Hiking feels so Right when it comes to returning Perri to the proper shape for agility. After being most sedentary during the peak of her rehab (except for UWTM sessions and short walks), Perri's endurance for longer walks dropped. I noticed today that Perri wasn't panting almost as soon as our walk started - she is getting back into shape and I'm excited about that. (When we first started lengthening her walks, her panting was noticeable.) It was a cold day, but we have been out in colder temperatures than today's forty degrees and she was panting. Not today. I just love hiking and exploring, and it is so good for a dog's overall conditioning!
Most of the geoart series were small pill bottle geocache containers zip tied to trees and a few feet into the woods. It is annoying dragging the dog(s) and leash in to sign the logbook, so I usually ask Perri to sit and stay while I do so. Perri is very good at this, Molly not so much. As soon as my back is turned Molly is up and following me into the woods. Grrr! I'm sure we could work on this, but Molly wants food payments always. Perri is happy to Be Right and be praised with a peppy release and my praise. Just different personalities, that's all!
I also started letting Perri jump up onto objects, and that is one of her favorite things. I have been lifting her down or making sure that she gets down gently. That might be a little premature of me but everything in moderation.
I let Perri drink from a cold stream on our last walk of the day (geocaching is a lot of driving to different locations and finding all caches in that location.) It was like poodle crack! She got very wild and kept getting zoomie and butt-tucking and pouncie silliness. Perri definitely wants to run run run!!
I look forwards to our next hiking adventure, but in the mean time town or neighborhood walks are very enjoyable. Our progress and time together is so sweet, I am so afraid that our re-check will reveal a reinjury. I obsess about this. But I will not let my paranoia make me too overprotective and rob Perri of being active and getting back into shape. We will enjoy our golden Sundays together and hopefully many many more to come.
Perri is still trucking along with her rehab. After our recheck we were to increase our walks to an hour, rough terrain okay within reason (no steep downhills.) We were to continue underwater treadmill sessions every week, or every other week. Re-check after six more UWTM sessions.
We have done four UWTM sessions since the first re-check and our second re-check is scheduled for January 14th. We have been hiking and doing longer walks and loving every minute of it. I have increased Perri's freedom slowly over the last month: she has been allowed more free roaming in the house and less closed doors. This has mostly been problem-free, though sometimes she taunts Molly into a play session and I have to shut that down. The leash is still always on for potty breaks and hikes/walks. About two weeks ago I tried to remove the leash for a river trail walk and Perri abused my confidence in her! She started barking and doing crazy loops and pounces and all sorts of things I did not want her newly healed shoulder doing. No more off leash since that!
Increasing freedom is terrifying. How much is a good challenge? How much is Too Much? I have to admit I have been struggling to limit her hikes to just one hour. We got completely carried away on Sunday with a hike that was probably over two hours. Bad! A lot of that was spent geocaching (lots of time is wasted in geocaching in the fruitless peering around for the cache container and walking in circles.) But still. I spend a good amount of my time miserably convinced that her recheck will reveal an reinjured shoulder and all hard work erased. But I can't allow my paranoia to dictate our life. Perri is still using her right front leg consistently to rise from a down position. She is not off loading onto the left front. Her UWTM work is going well and no lameness is presenting there. No reason to be concerned other than my racing worry-brain.
Last week Perri reached thirty minutes on the UWTM, that is the maximum amount of time that a dog will be on the treadmill. (two minutes have been added per session.) When a dog at our rehab facility reaches thirty minutes they get their pawprint on the "Honorary Motivated Milers" wall! (When the dog does a mile in 30 minutes, they get on the "Motivated Milers" wall.) Here is her pawprint, complete with a little spaceship (Perri is a martian, after all!)
Two more weeks will reveal if our progress is being maintained.
Today was mine and Perri's big day! Dr P checked Perri's wrist and elbow first and then moved to the shoulder. She said, "Wow this feels great!" I noticed that when she was pressing those trigger areas on Perri's triceps, the muscle was calm. At our initial evaluation, the soft tissue was spasming badly, you could see that easily. Huge difference!
Both of Perri's shoulders were measured - 26cm on the right side and 28cm on the left. She gained 3cm on the bad shoulder! (Her initial measurements were 23cm on the right and 26cm on the left.) Much improved! Dr P was very very happy with this!
Then we had the shoulder abduction test. Wow, what a difference. Perri's arm did not pull away from her body at all compared to last time, it was so tight! I can't believe how much better it looked from last time.
Dr P says that Perri's shoulder looks and feels absolutely great. But, she told me that this is a very finicky injury. She asked me what my goals were for Perri. I told her that off leash hiking is my priority and that I would like to return to agility.
Moving forward, we are allowed to discontinue many of our daily exercises. Cookie stretches need to continue at least one time a day, for Perri's life time. We are allowed to increase the time of our leash walks by five minutes per walk. We are allowed to go walking in the woods for these walks, uneven surfaces within reason are okay (such as roots or small rocks.). No steep downhill, no sharp 90 degree turns. Stay on the leash. Underwater treadmill every other week, or every week if I am able to. After six more UWTM sessions, she would like to re-evaluate Perri and by then she would like to see us up to an hour of leash walking. We are to do wide loopy figure 8 patterns on our walks, but no tight turning.
I am so head in the clouds happy right now. So happy!!!!!! Cannot wait for this weekend, to take Perri for our first walk in the woods in over 9 weeks!
As far as we have come, this week felt like our most unremarkable week. And that's a good thing. Routine. Looking back, the most difficult thing about this was that our routine was severely disrupted. We had to learn to live our lives a different way, and not a way that we enjoyed. Perri and I certainly don't love our new boring life, but we have become used to it.
She spends most mornings and afternoons in her room until I get home from work. Whatever I do after work, Perri is included - even if it is just to ride along. Which she loves. Training classes, trials, trips to the grocery store, whatever it is, Perri comes along. I even let her lay in the bathroom while I get a shower in the morning, anything to break up the monotony of being confined in her room. Perri is not a wild dog brimming over with energy and she is tolerating this really well. On one or two occasions I came home, let her out and put her back in the room after she was already in there for hours and then there was some barking and frustration - understandable. Perri is easily consoled with a "Busy Bone" (another trashy eat but she loves them.)
Exercises are continuing to go well and the Red Barn roll has not lost it's value for Perri. We were only able to visit the UWTM one time this week since they did not have any appointments available on the only other night my schedule allowed. She is up to 22 minutes still at the higher rate of speed and looking great.
I have noticed, starting just last Sunday especially, that Perri is defnitely using her bad leg to stand up with at times, when it makes sense. (Instead of going out of her way to use her left every time, if using her right is "easier" that is the one that she uses.) She will still off load onto the left at some times, but those times are decreasing. The rehab people were happy to hear this on Tuesday! I'm happy too! I am not imagining it.
Poodle feet in the UWTM.
I have been avoiding clipping Perri's feet, because I did not want her to stand for such a long time. I especially didn't want to force her to weight bear on her bad leg more than she was comfortable with. I gave foot clipping with Perri laying flat on her side a try, on suggestion of a friend. I didn't know how Perri would tolerate it, but she actually was a lot more cooperative than she is while standing! It was a different angle for me, so it took me a little bit longer than usual, but it was great to get all that fuzzy hair off of her feet.
I also ordered three prints from Perri's last (temporarily, I hope.) agility trial. That was such a beautiful weekend in September and Perri looks so happy and I am so overwhelmed with love for how much fun we had in the agility ring together from May 2014-September 2015. I am terrified that we will not be able to return. But I can't think like that.
NEXT TUESDAY is our progress re-check. We are doing this, we are making it. I don't expect Perri to be clear on Tuesday but we got this far and that is something. I am hoping her body shows some progress for all of our hard work.
I get to think things in my head like, "Less than two weeks until our re-check!" and "One month of rehab over!" I get to think that as of today. And that is something. That is Getting Somewhere.
Perri got two visits on the underwater treadmill this week. On Monday she did 18 minutes and it totally wiped her out. Her appointment was at 1pm and she napped well into the evening. Tonight she had an appointment at 7pm and was bumped up to 20 minutes as well as an increase in speed. Perri handled the increase well, but our therapist did "intervals" with the speed change. She started Perri off at the faster rate, and dropped her back, then moved her back up and Perri stayed at the faster rate for almost her entire therapy session. There was a tennis ball floating in the treadmill tonight, which I said we could leave in there to see if Perri liked it. Towards the end of Perri's session, the ball floated along her right side and Perri was moving as far to the left of the tank as she could. I was initially worried that she was uncomfortable with the faster speed and fatiguing, but I realized that the spacial pressure of the ball was alarming Perri. When I removed it, she immediately relaxed back into the middle of the belt. (Oh, Perri!) Strangely, instead of being tired (like she was on Monday), Perri is very sassy tonight! It makes me smile but she needs to stay subdued.
I am feeling very empowered lately. Perri has become extremely cooperative. She seems to be settling into her new and boring life, and requires less stimulation. I am so grateful she is not an insanely energetic dog, I will say that a thousand times. I ordered some beef roll from Red Barn and that has been a complete game changer where the cookie stretches are concerned. Perri is as eager as a dog could be to do any stretch, for any duration, for the Red Barn. I am happy with it too, because it has a decent ingredient list and is a healthful addition to her daily food intake.
WINNING.
Perri has also become more cooperative with laying on her left side. She needs to lay on her left side for her heat and massage, as well as her tricep stretch. When we first started this she would plant herself in a sphinx down and stubbornly refuse to let me roll her to one side or another. Now when I do a play bow and ask her to lay down, she does a rolled down towards her left side, and sometimes she even volunteers laying on her left side. She is definitely getting more loose and willing to let me do her tricep stretch, I am sure of that this week. Flex elbow, stretch arm forward gently. She is relaxing into the stretch, letting me flex her elbow and not fighting off the stretch.
Still a mixed bag as far as offloading when rising.
I got to talk to somebody at the trial this past weekend whose dog had Perri's exact injury, and treatment. She even had the same vet as we do! Her dog presented with limping, though. I have not encountered anyone else yet whose dog had MSI at a level mild enough to rehabilitate without surgery, so it was very exciting for me to hear her experiences. She told me that it took three months to rehabilitate, and she kept her dog away from agility for several more months after that. Three years later the dog looks great running agility and has stayed completely sound.
So, we continue on. One day at a time. "Ghostbusters" is my super fun song of the week for listening to while doing Perri's work outs!
Today marks three weeks of active rehab for Perri's MSI injury. That feels like a Big Deal because it means that we are halfway towards our 6-week recheck. I have no idea what sort of progress, if any, that Perri might show at that point...but it is a milestone that I am focusing on. And even getting halfway there feels like we are getting somewhere!
This has become a lifestyle, Perri's rehab. She is being amazing about being confined to the office all of the time. We love our 15-20 minutes of allowed leashed walking. We try to do her exercises and stretches twice per day and not a day has gone by that we have not done them at least one time. When we started, it took me an hour top to bottom to complete Perri's exercises (the heat pack alone is supposed to be left on for 15-20 minutes. Followed up by a 10 minute tricep masage.) I usually let the heat on for five minutes and play around on my iPad or read a book, then start massaging under the heat pack. If Perri is cooperating, we can get the full workout done in 45 minutes.
I have learned to have good treats for Perri's stretches, and a variety of them. Both Perri and I would probably be happy if we never had to do another "cookie stretch" and I think that is because they take up a lot of time and they are redundant. She has to stretch her head side to side, then nose to each rib and nose to hips. A lot of reps! I try to do five on each side, for each stretch and that is thirty stretches. If Perri is not in a good mood she does not "track" the cookie into the stretch well, or she will come out of the stretch early and refuse to be enticed back into it. She will just stare at me or into space. Lots of deep breaths and counting to ten, lots of praise for Perri. I have learned to have two different types of treats available, switching back and forth helps keep us from getting into a mental rut.
We are using any treat under the sun. We started with Puperoni which is totally junky and BHA-containing but Perri stretched consistently well for it. We used Plato Small Bites purchased with my worker coupons at an agility trial - much better ingredient list and the proper length and width that I can tear one longways into two pieces and do a stretch on each side for one treat. I found these AKC Chicken Filet treats at Big Lots and Perri really likes them and works hard for them. They smell rubbery and artificial but I will probably get another bag for enticing her out of a stubborn stuck mood. I plan to get a Natural Balance roll and cut it up and see how that goes for us, something a little more nutritious. Perri does her strength building exercises for Charlee Bears without complaint! Walking backwards, low cavaletti poles and down to sit, she is happy to do those FUN! things for a lower value treat. As I said in my prior post, meal time has become even more of a dance than usual because of Perri's rehab and a lot of that is because she is not hungry. She is filling up on treats and ham! (I often enviously think of how Molly would do every single exercise for kibble. She would!) For some reason it helps me to count out the amount of treats that I need for a given exercises, so that I can keep track of how many reps we have done and see how close we are to being done.
Just yesterday I had the idea to put music on while Perri and I do her stretches and exercises. (Mumford and Sons station on Pandora Radio is my favorite.) That really helps my mood and patience. Doing these exercises twice a day with a sometimes sulky and unwilling dog, sometimes when I am in a hurry, sometimes when I am so exhausted from a long day I could cry, sometimes when we have run out of time in the morning because of Perri's exhaustive breakfast eating or outdoor pottying process...it is very very hard to be patient when she says "Nope." and stares off into space. At times, before we even start, Perri utterly refuses to lay on her right side for her heat pack and massage. She will stand stock still like a statue. If she lays down it is in a square sphinx down, staring stubbornly forward and resisting my attempts to gently roll her onto her left side. Perri has been a mind game for me from the very first day, and this is absolutely no different. The music helps me to relax. My decision process for when to skip a workout or shorten it has improved. Dulling the frenzy of "We have to do this!" and accepting that I Am Doing My Best. Sometimes my best is just two rounds of Perri's cookie stretches (I asked Dr P on a phone call last week what is the most important thing to do if I am very short on time, without hesitation she said the dreaded Cookie Stretches.) I have learned that, to get Perri onto her left side for her heat, massage and tricep stretch, that I need to get into a play bow and call her to me. I have to make kissy noises and growly noises. Without fail she wiggles into me and presses her face against me. Without fail she will go into a non-sphinx down and I praise her and pet her all over and get her rolled onto her left side.
I am learning a lot.
It has felt impossible, and therefore frustrating, for me to tell if there are any improvements with Perri physically. One thing I did start to notice about two weeks ago was how Perri offloads onto her left significantly when she stands from resting. Even if it would make more sense to get up by pushing up from her bad side, she would make an effort to use her left front to push herself up. Over the last few days, just very recently, I have seen her do less of this exaggerated off loading, she seems to get up more evenly. One time she even rose from rest pushing off of her right side. The other place that I think that there is improvement is in Perri's tricep stretch. (The tricep stretch is Perri laying on her right side, elbow is to be flexed and gently push the elbow forward and stretch the tricep muscle.) Initially she was very very tight in this stretch, to the point it almost scared me to do it. I would stretch her but we did not get a lot of ROM out of the stretch. Very often, Perri would push out of the stretch after not even ten seconds. Just over the last few days we are getting better ROM than we had and she is letting me hold the stretch up to 15 seconds.
Perri is up to 16 minutes on the underwater treadmill. On our Tuesday night visit, Perri was looking very great on the treadmill, strong and even. We will increase the speed next week! And next week I can actually get Perri there for two sessions on the uwtm, I am happy about that. My schedule has only allowed one time per week until now. Perri seems to do best if I stand to the side of the treadmill and give her treat bits. When I stand at the front of the treadmill she comes forward too far and "cheats" (puts her forepaws off the belt so that only her back end is walking.) More treats: right now we have a bag of soft peanut butter Buddy Biscuits and Perri loves the "house special": Bil Jac Gooberlicious.
That's just about it. The day after day, accepting every round of completed exercises as a victory, figuring out what works, being proud of every day's end, accepting that me and Perri are doing our best and we are Getting There. One day at a time.
Although tomorrow will make our first complete week of rehab, I am calling it tonight. It also makes a full month of restricted activity for Perri. Three weeks of semi-strict restriction (no hikes, no sports, no running.) and on Saturday I had to "crack down". We are not to the crate rest point yet, but I am keeping her in the small bedroom on our first floor that we use as an office. This is to prevent her from: bounding up and down steps, springing off of the couches, and sprinting around the house. I was doing a lot of baby gating and closed doors and giving her living room couch priveleges, which was making me paranoid and unable to relax. The office it is. The office is safe, the office is not having to race into the living room every five seconds to make sure she isn't going to pounce off the couch or run circles around Molly.
I have no idea how people with extremely "high drive" dogs do this. I really do not.
Perri is used to a certain lifestyle. She is used to getting ample time to run off leash, she is used to hiking and swimming, she is used to intense wrestling matches with her poodle friend Daphnee weekly, she is used to agility, she is used to playing ball and training and not being penned up in an office for almost her entire day. She is not a sedentary dog. And it is making her weirder.
She is staring at me more, if that was even possible. She is rubbing against me like a cat. Today at her once weekly visit to our friend's office job, she was completely intolerant of a friendly rescue basset hound who was in the office with her. Growling and lunging and complete hatred. It is not like Perri. She dozed off into a nap and was baring her teeth and growling in her sleep. Tonight she growled at Ein for walking near her Kong. It's all just not like Perri, but I can't blame her. And my god, it is only the first week.
We are going to the beach next week for three days and I normally so love our time at the beach. But when I think of Perri who will be locked in a crate in our camper instead of racing in full extension after seagulls on the beach, I could just cry. I honestly do not even feel like going.
Perri had her second visit to the rehab center this week for under water treadmill therapy. She did 12 minutes this time instead of 10 and every body loves her and she was a very good girl. After her time in the treadmill she was let out and her tail was wagging and she was happy to get towel dried and snuggled by the (tech?) that operated the treadmill. I asked what her official diagnosis is because while I was assuming MSI based on Dr. P telling me that Perri's injury was "like a rotator cuff injury in humans", I wanted to know it for sure. Mild Medial Shoulder Instability.
I am extremely dedicated to our exercises and stretches at home, I know it is the key to her getting better. We are to do our list 1-2 times per day, 5-10 reps each. I do it all twice per day and try my best to do 10 reps of everything. I have started waking up 35 minutes earlier than normal to fit it all in before work.
Perri's favorite exercise is the low cavalettis. Motion. She has to do "down to sit" and backwards walking. She has three different sorts of "cookie stretches" - to the side, to the ribs and to the hip. Perri struggled a lot with the stretches away from her affected shoulder. When we first started them she tried to rotate her body so that she did not have to stretch so much. Crafty. I asked for her to hold the stretch for a very short amount of time (1-2 seconds when each is to be held for 10-15.) Not my first go around with keeping things short and successful with Perri, that's for sure. I have enjoyed seeing her improve in her endurance for these active stretches already, in just a week's time. Whether it is actual improvement in her condition, or just feeling more comfortable and confident...who knows. We also have to do a heat pack, tricep massage and tricep stretch (Perri's elbow is to be flexed and then the shoulder extended manually by me.) The heat pack is Perri's least favorite thing. Our only heat pad is a handmade rice heating pad that is microwavable. I am starting to suspect that it feels heavy to Perri, she can be a little weird about all things sensory. A new and lighter heat pad is on my to do list.
This will not be forever. This will not be forever. This will not be forever.
I have quite a bit to update about but Perri and I had our visit with our new vet tonight so I want to write about that straight off! It has been three weeks of resting so far since I took Perri to our chiropractor. We had a little bit of a wait to get into our new vet, which is understandable. Tonight was the night.
I told the vet our history, starting back in late winter/early spring when the weave pole popping began. She did a thorough physical exam and told me that her rear legs and back feel great. Her left leg feels great. Then we got to the right front. Good range of motion on the elbow and wrist. The shoulder, however, not so much. Her triceps were spasming when the vet was palpating them, she said that is a secondary sign of something else going on. She extended Perri's shoulder okay (a "tricep stretch"), but when she abducted the arm laterally from the body, it is able to move further away from the body than it should. The vet said this is equivalent to a rotator cuff tear in humans. The vet also measured the soft tissue on Perri's shoulders - there is a 3cm difference between the right and left shoulder. The right shoulder is atrophied from Perri off loading onto her left side. Perri's injury will not require surgery (unless, for some reason, it worsens.) and the vet seemed very positive that Perri will make a full recovery with physical therapy and underwater treadmill sessions. We will focus on this for 6 weeks and then Perri will have a re-assessment.
We got going straight away with the underwater treadmill. I was not sure how Perri would react! She was nervous at first and then when the tank was filled with water she seemed troubled. When the belt started moving me and the therapist stood in front of Perri and praised her beauty and bravery while feeding her treats. Perri enjoyed this and began walking very nicely on the treadmill. She did ten minutes. The therapist told me that we will add two minutes onto the next session.
Now is the part of the post where I beat myself up! (It would not be a post in my blog if I didn't do that.) This injury was never healed from Spring. I know that. I wanted it to be, so I believed it when the vet at the agility trial told me that she was okay. Even though he watched her move and told me he could see it was her right front. He said she could run and play and I wanted it to be true, so I believed it. And Perri's shoulder may have felt better back then, after some rest...but it was not actually better. She was an amazing sport about retraining her weave poles, she really was. But it sure did not take long for the old symptoms to come creeping back in. (the popping out, and eventually, the sniffing. The "I can't.") This time, we are going to do it right. Perri deserves that. I am so sad we have to take a break from hiking, swimming, pouncing and yes , agility. But it's the only way to get back to my dog being sound and enjoying the things that she loves without any pain.
