Home > Stories > True Holiday Miracles > The Hatch Holiday Miracle 2011: Bridget Looses Her Groove
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As always, we will save trees, time and money sending our Holiday Letter by email and hope you get a few more giggles from our continued trials...
The Hatches have two dogs. The backup, auxiliary pooch, Bridget, is a rescued,
Chocolate Chiweenie with 2" legs and an 18" long spine. Ignoring the absurdity of
leaping 3 feet in the air on 2" legs, she did just that on a regular basis to sit on our laps.
The problem was the return trip. It was like a carrier landing without the hooks. It
began with a lap explosion, which launched her an additional foot or so in the air,
followed by a crash landing on those stubby, little legs.
 One day, after logging a decade or so of such landings, she "pulled up lame," as the
cowboys say. Her back-end stopped talking to the front-end. The caboose quit
following the engine. When she tried to walk, she looked like a drunken sailor, falling
over with each step. Distressed, Bridget quit eating and finally
just laid down on her side and looked up at us with those big
brown eyes as if to say, "What have I done to deserve this?"
"Not uncommon in long-backed dogs," said the vet, who gave
us some choices. One involved an MRI, surgery and
refinancing the house. Unfortunately, there was no assurance
that several thousands dollars worth of spinal carpentry and months of rehab would
actually solve anything: even if she responded well to the surgical repairs, the next leap
from a high place was likely to undo the delicate operation or just move the problem on
down to the next vertebrae or the one after that. The second option was to sedate her,
crate her and ply her with an anti-inflammatory drug, and see if she gets any better. This
seemed like a long shot, given her near paralyzed condition. The third option was
moving her along, prematurely, to that great kennel in the sky.
 We went for Option 2. After a week of diaper changing, doctoring and moving her cage
from room to room to stop her incessant, grief-stricken woofing, she still had no
discernable air in her back wheels.
Then one day we put her gently down on the ground in the backyard and, unexpectedly,
she proceeded to prance toward her favorite fire hydrant. Much to our amazement, her
rear-end was doing a passable job of keeping up. The Holiday Miracle had happened. It
was as if Bridget had crawled into the evangelical tent, experienced the laying on of
hands, and had thrown away her crutches.
We don't know how long this miracle will last, but we're just
enjoying the loveable little creature for as long as we can, so
long as she's not in pain. Her high-flying days are clearly
over. She is required, from now on, to cruise her habitat at
seriously low altitudes.
The lesson reconfirmed: Live in the moment and appreciate the love as long as you can!
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