Weekly recap (12/19-12/25): Heartbroken

Weekly Recap

27 Dec

Well, that wasn't the Christmas I was hoping for. Or the week. (Or the year.)

I don't have much to say about workouts this week, other than I did a few (3 barre classes, 2 short 3-mile runs), despite getting very broken sleep and an average of about 4 hours per night with 2 at the beginning of the night and 2 in the early morning hours after sleep interruptions ended.

But sleep wasn't really my problem this week. It was just a symptom.

This week, for some reason, two of my beagles decided to turn on Meadow (my beagle who just went through radiation for nasal cancer) and attacked her twice. The first time (on Tuesday), they tore her ear. Traumatic, but not too terrible overall. I was there to stop it pretty much right as it started and got her to our vet where they stitched her up and sent us home with some pain meds and antibiotics (and a lovely e-collar).

But then On Christmas Eve, after being out at an oyster roast, we came home to one of the most frightening sights I've ever seen. My two beagles attacked her again and I didn't get to her right away since they started while we were getting out of the car and coming inside. They had her pinned on her back, she was screaming and growling. It was so horrifying and I cry when I think about it.

They did significant damage to her this second time and we ended up in the pet ER. She sustained multiple lacerations to her neck and puncture wounds to her legs and lower abdomen. Fortunately, after X-rays and closer examination, they all seemed to be surface injuries and no organs were damaged and no bones were broken.

The vet took her in for surgery right away to stitch and staple her back up and kept her overnight. We picked her up on Christmas morning and she spent the day pretty groggy. I've been by her side taking care of her ever since. She gets warm compresses on her wounds to help reduce swelling and she needs a bit of help getting around when she gets up.

I'm taking her back to our regular vet tomorrow for a recheck because she just has so many injuries and I want them to double check everything, especially her back legs since they received the brunt of the injuries and her back because she already has back issues and I'm sure this started a flare up.

I can barely look at her without sobbing. She's such a sweet dog and she's been through so much already. The last thing she needed was for the other dogs in the family to turn on her and start attacking her. These dogs have been in the same house for years and have been buddies. I'm just so heartbroken right now.

Because of this attack and Meadow's need for constant care, we canceled our Christmas travel plans. We were supposed to go to PA this week to see family, but we are staying home with Meadow. After the first attack that was just her ear and when she bounced right back from that, we were planning to take her along to PA, but after the second one, travel would have just be too much for her (and probably us, too).

I know Meadow is a tough little trooper and I'm hoping she recovers quickly and fully (as the vet expects), but these past few days have been so, so hard. Instead of celebrating Christmas with cookies, crafting and gingerbread house making, I spent most of the day crying and taking care of Meadow. I didn't even make Christmas dinner.

Fortunately B is a little too young to fully understand what happened to Meadow (he just knows she's "sick") and he had a blast opening his presents and playing with them. Little dude definitely loves Christmas.

This Christmas, with the exception of a few moments and just like most of 2016, is something I'd like to quickly move on from and forget.

How was your Christmas (better than mine I hope!)?

I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin' for their Weekly Wrap post. You can check out all of this week's posts here.