Sunday, June 6, 2010

Tears In My Eyes


Tonight, as a parent I experienced one of the proudest moments of my life. Seriously, my heart swelled in my chest and something became lodged in my throat.

You may or may not remember, but a little over a year ago, when we rescued The Hankster, he required a major orthopedic surgery.

Poor little guy was only 12 weeks old and he came home like this:

HankHomeFromSurgery

Ouchie!

In the months (heck, the whole year) that followed, Cowboy H and I often questioned whether the surgery did any good. Occasionally, we considered having the entire leg amputated. For the longest time it seemed, Hank didn't even use the leg. It was just there, even in the way sometimes.

Eventually we realized that the leg was shorter than the other one. In the few weeks between his injury and the surgery, the blood supply to his femur had been compromised. For that period of time, Hank's right femur did not grow at the same rate as the other, making the leg a little stumpy. We're still not sure if he'll ever use the leg normally, despite the fact that he gets quite a bit of use out of it now.

In addition to having leg surgery, Hank was also neutered the same day. The combination of not using the leg and not having the male hormones made us wonder if he would ever stop squatting to pee.

Until tonight. Tonight, while running around at the park, Hank stood on his bad leg and lifted his good leg to pee on a pole.

I have never been prouder.

Never, ever in my life.

In other news, the winner of the "Name That Photo" contest has been decided.

The Desert Rose: "Redneck woman vacuums up two dogs..."

I seriously laughed out loud, because well, I wouldn't be surprised if I actually did vacuum up a dog someday.

Congrats Desert Rose! Take your pick of one of the following:

Bird and Flower

Cadillac

9 comments:

  1. Cute story!! Go Hank!
    Congrats to my auntie for the great caption!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a story!! I never realized that Hank had gone through such a tough surgery at a such a young age!!
    That is so great that he finally lifted his leg, and held himself up by his bad leg at that!! Good boy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow...so great to hear that Little Hank had his 1st real "man moment"!!! Dying to hear about your trip...
    Excited to win your contest...I'll take the one of Cowboy H's saddle plz!!! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Poor Hank! What a huge deal for such a young'un to go through!! So glad he pulled through it all and hiked a leg tonight!!

    Loved Desert Rose's caption on that!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. lol! lol! This was great! I remember the first time my twinlings learned how to pee standing up. It sure made hiking and camping so much easier when they could just find a tree or bush. lol!

    Yay for your cute Hank!

    ~Lisa

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah, what a good doggie! Speaking of piddling, we've been working on getting my nephew potty trained. He's finally got the idea and we are so excited! I think he knew it all along, he was just going to do it on HIS timetable. He hasn't lifted his leg yet, hee hee! It's a possibility though because he thinks he's a puppy half the time!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a sweet story. Good Boy Hank! And Congratulations Desert Rose! Beautiful pictures Mama H!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, poor lil guy! So glad he's made an improvement.

    ReplyDelete

Howdy y'all! It makes The Homestead a warm and fuzzy place when you stop by; each and every word is read with great appreciation. Thanks for visiting!