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."
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.
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.
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