By my side

By Christine Tailer
HCP columnist

She ran up to me and gingerly eased herself down to sit at my feet. Something was wrong. I ran my hands down her back and she did not flinch, but when I turned to walk back to the cabin, I could see that she was limping, and actually was not putting any weight on her right hind leg.

She climbed the stairs in three-legged fashion. She easily made a three-legged jump up onto the couch and then gently lay down. I sat beside her. When I ran my hand down her leg to her toes, she expressed her doggish displeasure. Perhaps it was just a sprain. We decided to wait a day or two to see if her limping might get any better.

Two days passed and she was still barely putting any weight on her foot. Greg thought she had injured her hip. I thought it was her ankle, but after a quick exam, the vet told us she had injured her cranial cruciate ligament, the ligament that keeps the shin bone from sliding forward. He explained that it is a common football injury, though in humans it is called an ACL injury, that occurs when the foot is firmly planted but the upper body twists, tearing the ligament. Our dog is no football player, but she is a farm dog. She runs after deer, squirrels and chipmunks.  She leaps from creek rock to creek rock and swims after trees that float past after a storm. She is busy all day and sleeps soundly through the night. It was easy for us to see how she might have been injured.

The vet went on to tell us that surgery was an option, but that with two types of medicine and keeping her on a leash for a month, there was a good chance the injury would heal. With medication in hand and our resolve set, we left the vet's office to turn our farm dog into a leash dog.

I was thankful that we had taught her proper leash walking behavior on our frequent trips to the farm supply and hardware stores, but I was having difficulty imagining leash walks around the farm. She likes to help, or more likely hinder, doing chores in her own doggish way. When I rake, she loves to help carry the rake and scatter my tidy piles. When I feed the pasture animals their sweet feed, she loves to join them and gather up a bit for herself. While I pull weeds, she pulls plants, and when I throw fallen branches to the side of the road, she chases after them and proudly brings them back. This is her farm dog life, but we were determined to do this leash thing correctly.

The first few days were rather rough. She pulled with all her three-legged might. We quickly learned not to toss branches off the road or risk injury to our own rotator cuffs. In time, however, she realized that leash walks, as long as her walking person had a pocket full of treats, could be quite enjoyable.

So, for the past three weeks she has been living her best farm life on the end of a leash. She is no longer limping. She runs up and down the cabin stairs easily. It is so tempting to just open her doggy doors and let her run, but no. We will follow the vet's orders. We want her to heal fully.

There is something else, though. I had only thought of how troublesome it would be to keep her on a leash for a month. I had not realized the bond it would foster between us. She comes up to me and nudges me towards the door. She is a herding dog after all. I ask if she wants to go for a walk and she dances. I snap on her leash and she sits for her first treat of the walk, and then we are out the door. I pause beside her as she smells those wonderful farm smells. Sometimes we stroll slowly. Other times we walk fast. We might even stop and stand still. She has always been my dear four-legged partner, but now she has become even more a part of me as we walk the farm side by side.

I am looking forward to seeing her bounding across the fields and jumping across rocks and swimming in the creek, but yes, I am going to miss these walks, where I can reach down and run my fingers across her furry forehead.

Christine Tailer is an attorney and former city dweller who moved several years ago, with her husband, Greg, to an off-grid farm in south-central Ohio. Visit them on the web at straightcreekvalleyfarm.com.