Back in business

Know your limits...

...and you're off!

Maddie the miracle dog is fully healed.

She increased her mileage slowly for a couple of weeks and is now back to the mile walk around the lake plus the distance from our house, probably 3/4 of a mile. Since she was hit by a car, I haven't let her off the leash. But yesterday at the lake I relented. She ran right into the water, splashed around gleefully, then ran in circles around me.

Of course that meant I had to leave her off the leash for most of the rest of the walk. Sometimes she runs a short distance ahead or makes loops through the woods, but I'm confident she'll come when called. I think she did this before the accident, but I just noticed it more: When she gets ahead of me, she stops, looks back and waits. I put her back on the leash at a point on the path that is close to the road. She comes and sits down, knowing it is "leash time."

And at home, instead of running into the back yard when someone is grilling, she sits in the kitchen at the open slider and looks out. I wonder if she has some memory that last time she ran out that door and into the yard, she got hit shortly after.

Anyway, I always loved her, but I appreciate her more. I still look at her and think, "Wow, she's alive."

With loving help and care, she did what anyone who gets hit by that proverbial Mac truck needs to do: She took her medicine, endured her pain, and then, one step at a time, got back on her paws.