Dixie, our first dog

This is a sad little story, without a very happy ending.  You've been warned.


The girl's trying out the borrowed kennel


Two weeks ago, Eric found a dog, and fell in love.  I saw her too, and fell in love.  We sent in our adoption paperwork (2 pages), had two phone interviews, and then broke the news to the kids: we were going to look at a dog.  They were so exstatic!  Even better, it was one of Davin's two favorite breeds: a Jack Russell Terrier!!


Dixie


Saturday, March 10th we drove out the the big adoption event 30 minutes away.  We met, and fell HARD for this little 3 yo dog named Dixie (we were even going to keep her name since it let itself very nicely to radio talk-DX-ing).

She was perfect, lots of energy, running all over the yard, jumping and playing with the kids, well mannered, no barking.  Until...a few hours later we noticed she was limping on her back foot.  We thought that maybe she'd cought a thorn or something, that in a day or two she'd be fine.

But no such luck.  By Monday morning she didn't even want to go for a morning walk/jog with Eric.  I took her to the vet, and we were given devistating news: her knee ligament was gone, common in small dogs, she was looking at surgery with only an 85% rate.  She spent the remainder of her time with us hiding from the kids, and napping.

Since she came from a breed rescue, they took her back on Wednesday to get treatment and to recover.  The likelyhood of Dixie being the "right" dog for our family post surgery and recovery are pretty slim.  Not exactly the fun-filled Spring Break week I was expecting.