Lessons in Gratitude Day 133

Today has been a long day. Wednesdays are often like that, and today was even longer than usual. I spent a chunk of today helping my friend Francie get ready to bring her best friend home from the hospital where he’d undergone serious surgery. Her friend (she refers to him as her significant other) is an 11 year old Irish terrier named Bailie. I wrote about him in this blog a few days ago. A little over a week ago Francie discovered that Bailie had a growth on one of his hind paws. It turned out to be a very aggressive, fast-growing cancer. Faced with a number of fairly serious options, the best course of action required that Francie make a difficult decision: to save Bailie’s life, he was going to have to lose his leg. And so on Monday evening Bailie had his right hind leg amputated.

I went with Francie to the hospital in part to help and in part to support. I lived with them both for six years and know how much he means to her. She was understandably anxious, at least in part, about how she would feel seeing him with only three legs. When they finally brought him out–Bailie hobbled a bit, working to balance–Francie greeted him and was totally glad to see him. It took us a while to get him situated in the car for the 45 minute drive home, but once we got underway, he settled down. I carried him from the car to the house and then carried him back outside and into the back yard so he could take care of his business. It was a challenge for him to relieve himself without losing his balance and falling, but we managed it. I carried him back into the house. Between the two of us we did what we needed to do to make him comfortable being back at home. What was clear to me is that he has some adjusting to do, but that over time he’s going to be fine. They both are.

Now as I reflect on the evening I realize that my heart was wrenched a little bit for Bailie.  For a time I sat on the floor beside him, my hand on his head, praying for him. It felt like the right thing to do. My heart went out to him as I watched him struggle to try to lie down on his bed. It is hard to watch someone you care about struggle, be in pain. As difficult as it was, I am grateful to have been asked to assist with his homecoming. I plan to check in on him over the next few days to see how he’s doing–physically and emotionally. My guess is that our canine friends probably recover emotionally way faster than humans, though I don’t know this for a fact.

This is perhaps an odd lesson in gratitude tonight, but I wanted to share about Bailie. I look forward to the return of his silly good humor. He’s probably a few days away from that yet, but I’m confident it’ll return. Until then, my plan is to keep sending healing, restorative thoughts in his direction.