Peaches the Miracle Puppy - The Second Miracle

Saturday, July 11, 2020 

Our family has completely fallen for this cute fluff ball Peaches, as has many others in the neighborhood. She's got a lot of sass and tries to let Flash know she's boss. He tolerates her mostly. He's like a teenager annoyed with the younger sibling.

 

We’d spent the last couple weeks with the Wilber side of the family who came to town to visit us. That night we were going down the street with our cousins for our friend’s birthday party. As I was walking out the door, I HAD A THOUGHT to put Peaches in her kennel. We don't usually leave her out because she is so small and I don't want her getting into anything. But Mom Wilber, Greg's sister Katie, and her husband Jake would be staying at the house. I IGNORED THE FEELING and left her out to roam.

 

We had a fun filled evening with dancing, karaoke, and seeing neighborhood friends we hadn't seen in months. As the evening was winding down Greg disappeared. I knew we needed to get back soon but I was procrastinating having to gather the nine kids we'd brought with us. Bethany approached me with the microphone, "We have to sing this song before you leave!" John Michael Montgomery's song "Sold" was playing and a flood of memories from my youthful days in Florida were racing through my head. How can you not sing along when that song is playing?! Two Florida hicks were released right there singing that song together!

 

Near the end of the song Greg suddenly appeared. He looked mad. He was yelling something. I couldn't hear him over the music. He walked straight up to me and took the microphone out of my hand and replaced it with Peaches. I still couldn't comprehend what was going on. So many of the kids were following him and they were crying. Greg kept rambling and talking about "her." I kept trying to break through all the commotion, "Calm down! What is going on?!"

"She's dying!"

We all kept speed walking with half the neighborhood following. I didn't see an ambulance at our house. I was worried Greg was talking about his Mom because I didn't know who "her" was. What happened while we were gone?

 

Obviously still shaken up Greg responded, "No one knows. They just found her like this not responsive and yelping."

 "Your mom?!?" I said so confused at this point!

 Greg finally stopped for the first time and looked at me with some annoyance. "You're dog!" We were almost back to our house and I looked down at Peaches for the first time. She was laying on her back with her head tilted straight up. She was not wiggling even a little bit. Greg moved her head forward and said, "I don't think she can breathe well with her head in that position." He explained that she was yelping in the laundry room. Jake went in to see what was wrong and he had to turn the light on to find her. She wasn't moving. Her body was ridged and paralyzed.

 None of it made sense to me. Something had to of happened! I wondered if she had been stepped on or some crazy accident had happened. I knew how devastating that could be for whoever accidentally did...whatever? I decided right there that if that was the case I must forgive so my children would also forgive. We went over all kinds of different options of what could of happened. But with nobody being there when it started, we didn't really have anything to go off of. We didn't see any spilled garbage or chemicals she could have gotten into (we checked). Everything is pretty well baby-proofed. It didn't look like anything could of fallen on her. I felt around her legs and spine to see if I could feel any obvious breaks. I couldn't tell if she broke something but her legs were ridged. It was hard to force them to move. She was clearly in pain. When you touched her neck and around the left ear she yelped out in terrible pain.

 

We sat outside examining Peaches. Bethany came down to check on us. I was feeling so bad for causing a seen at her birthday party. I was so worried we had ruined it for her. I started calling emergency vets. The kids kept coming outside to check on Peaches. Kayla was crying so loud and she happened to come outside at the perfectly timed part of the calls that tells you, press I for... press 2 for... I couldn't hear a thing! I'd hang up and call back just to have her return outside again while I was trying to listen to what number to press again! I lost all patience yelling at the kids to go inside and stay there until we came in. I could not handle watching Peaches, kids freaking out, and trying to make calls to find a vet. I was trying to hold everything and my own emotions together on the outside.

 

Once I finally got a vet on the phone I learned I had two options. Either go to Salt Lake where there is a vet hospital or go to a vet 15 minutes south of us although she would be limited as to how she could treat Peaches because no other staff was there. Of course Kayla came out again during this call. A little more hopeful this time. She was certain she knew what was wrong with Peaches. She had an article pulled up on the home phone about black widow bites in dogs. I told her to go inside again, this couldn't be a spider bite....could it? Every question the vet was asking she was leaning towards a spinal cord injury.

 

We jumped in the car deciding to go to the closer vet. I honestly thought Peaches was dying and we didn't have time to drive to SLC. I knew the kids would be ok. I was grateful Grandma, Auntie Katie, and Bethany (aka Mama B) were talking to them and comforting them. I still felt bad for them as we drove away. I know the older kids remembered us taking a very old and sick Paco and Issie to the vet and bringing them home to have a pet funeral. I knew this would be haunting their memories, as it was mine.

 

Finally, away from the kids I let go of my own emotions. I didn't want them to see how scared I was. I cried and sobbed. I admitted out loud what possessed my thoughts-I had the feeling that I should put her in the kennel and I IGNORED that feeling. I had a prompting and didn't recognize it as one. I discounted it as my own crazy thoughts. This felt like my fault. It could have been easily avoided had I followed the prompting. I prayed for forgiveness. I prayed for Heavenly Father to save Peaches. I told Him that we needed her in our family longer than these few short months. I didn't want to watch my kids go through mourning there puppy. I knew she was just a dog but I knew Heavenly Father could save her if it was His will. The rest of the car ride was spent with me telling Peaches to hold on a little longer.

 

The vet was baffled by her sudden and extreme symptoms. The X-rays showed no broken bones. The vet performed several smaller tests that she didn't react to. At this point she didn't even yelp anymore. She pushed her fingers into the soft parts of her paw between the pads. No reaction where normally a dog pulls its paw away. When putting her down on the flat surface normally a dog rights their paws so they are ready to stand. She didn't do anything. Held no weight on her legs and went straight to laying or rather falling over limp. Her eyes did react to us calling her name although she couldn't turn her head. The vet’s best guess was a pinched nerve in her neck or something neurological. I did however notice that inside of her left ear looked very red and swollen. Before we left Peaches suddenly moved her body trying to get to me. We were all amazed! We took this as improvement but the vet still warned us that little dogs can suddenly go south very quickly when they are paralyzed like this because their breathing can be affected and they can pass very quickly.

 

We took her home not knowing what the outcome would be. Before we went to sleep we laid her in the grass in hopes she would go potty. To our amazement she peed while laying and then stood up and took a step before falling flat on her face. It gave us hope and we hung onto that. Over the next several days we had more tests done and her ears more thoroughly looked at. They were still sensitive to the touch but not as red and swollen. Tests came back normal. The more we read online about black widow bites in dogs the more we considered this to be the problem. The vet said they don't usually diagnose spider bite unless someone sees the spider or wound. It was the only thing that made sense with all her symptoms though and her slow and gradual recovery. The kids said that she has been wandering out on her own through the dogie door to the raspberry bushes and eating them off the bush. My daughters told me that they stopped picking raspberries because they saw a black widow in there and were scared.

 

Over the next 2 weeks she gradually got better. We kept her in a small laundry basket babysitting her. She slept a lot. At first she would only take a few steps at a time before falling. Eventually she walked like a drunk dog. Her back legs looked as if she was doing a semi – split trying to keep her balance. We missed her prance and sassy attitude. Little by little she was coming back to us though. Present day, you'd never know she ever had this issue.

 Ultimately, we do think a black widow bit her. We did see a tiny scab work its way out of her ear. She had every symptom listed online for a black widow bite on a dog. However, online it said most little dogs die. Anyone that saw her in those first few days didn't think she was going to survive. I thought holding her lifeless body that night, she would surely go. I know it was by the grace of God and God alone that saved her. I don't know why, but I know He saved her.

We celebrated when she could actually walk this far! It's hard to see how far apart her back legs were here. Also, watch carefully her slippery balance.

P.S. I made a discovery or realization through this experience. Greg and I have been married 15.5 years and I finally just learned this about him. When he is extremely worried or in time sensitive situations he appears to be mad, sometimes doesn't stop talking, or opposite doesn't talk at all just walks around fuming and in addition, he is not good in emergency situations. He goes into "end of the world mode" or shock basically. I love the man to death but I'm just now realizing this about him.
EXAMPLE 1- When Lilah was born it was literally a 45 minute labor from first contraction to her in my arms. I drove half that time from the grocery store to Greg's work. She was born 4 minutes after arriving at the hospital and a nurse had JUST checked me....she came flying out on the bed with no doctor or nurse to "catch" her. Greg walked around that hospital room with such a scowl on his face not saying a word for half an hour. When we were finally alone I asked him, "Are you mad or something? Because we just had a baby....naturally...on this bed...." He explained that he was upset because the nurse had JUST checked me and how did she not know the baby was coming right then! He was worried about Lilah and me and our safety. He wasn't mad. He was scared and concerned.
EXAMPLE 2- I was nursing Owen when he was a newborn. Greg was being silly and picking up Myles by the onsie jammie and tossing him on the couch. One time he accidentally grabbed his button (g-tube) and it came clean out of the stoma (whole in his abdomen leading to stomach) with the internal balloon fully intact. (Picture pulling an earring out without taking the backing off, but the backing is a water balloon instead of metal.) They say you have 30 minutes to get a new button in or the stoma could start to close on its own. Greg was non stop talking walking from one end of the house to the next end about how we had to hurry so we didn't end up in the ER doing another surgery. I told Kenzie where to find the emergency button and laid Owen down. Within a matter of a couple minutes I had that button in and the world was good again.
EXAMPLE 3- Peaches being bit by a black widow and with all the confusion and worry I was thinking his mom was dying until we were half way down the street....(ok in all fairness I'm really slow to catch on too). 
P.S.S. It was interesting to share this discovery I made with Greg (and ask him not to freak out in front of kids/neighborhood again...). None of this is meant in any bad way at all. It is strictly to point out that even now after all this time we are still learning new things about each other....partly because I'm slow to catch on apparently. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and Greg has many strengths I'm so grateful for. I love him just how he is and that's just fine. Love you Greg.