Broken Femur

Yesterday I took my dog, Kona, to the dog park to walk and play.  It is about a five acre forested plot of land totally fenced in, so that dogs can go off-leash.  It's a beautiful place right along the Mississippi River that allows dogs to not only run among the trees but take a dip in the water.  Obviously, Kona loves going to play fetch and swim in the river, she's a free dog!  

So as I said, yesterday after being there for about an hour and a half we were making our way out walking up a hill.  As we walked the hill started to plane out into a cliff and my plan was to continue walking up and out when I turned around and Kona took a full leap off the cliff about 30 feet off the ground.  I couldn't believe what I had just seen!

As soon as she hit the ground she began to yelp and to my surprise she survived the fall.  I almost killed myself running down to check on her and see what I could do.  Immediately I knew her leg was broken, it was just hanging and swinging from side to side.  I scooped her into my arms and carried her out of the park and drove her immediately to the animal clinic.

X-rays(above) and hours later it was confirmed that she had a serious femur fracture and will be having surgery on Wednesday.  As you can imagine this whole incident is and will cause our pocket book to take a huge hit.  It's a little disheartening, but I realize I'm more attached to this dog than I thought I was.  It was  pretty traumatic experience for me and I've always taken the approach that she is a dog and I will not treat her like a human.  I still believe that but after some serious thought we know that we should and will do the surgery.

Inside there is the battle of knowing that in America we take better care of our dogs than the homeless on the corner.  The realization that after this we will have spent more on Kona's medical bills than families in some countries make in an entire year.  When I look at the families I work with and what this money could do for them it makes me shutter a little.  But maybe to make myself feel better, I've come to the conclusion that many people spend much more on cars that last less time than Kona will and bring way less pleasure.  I'm still not completely settled in my heart about it all but Amy and I have decided, and I think it's the right choice!  

All this to say tomorrow is her surgery and it has been a long couple of days.  Kona lays on the ground and moans constantly.  I slept maybe 2-3 hours last night.  Please pray for the whole situation.  Thank you!