Jack Russell Story Jack Russell Story
Story Name: Elmo and His Big Jump!
From: J.Bruce Furlong
My Jack Russell Story:
I recently fell in love with a tiny little dog while walking by the pet store. He was so cute, and harmless, sitting beside his four brothers. I stopped and looked into the glass and couldn't resist but to have him taken out of the cage. Standing about six inches from the ground he looked up at me with his Big brown eyes as if to say please take me with you! So I did, and my life has never been the same, neither has my parents. You see this little cute tyrant is a complete menace to all that it comes in contact with including himself.
It all started around the age of about six months. I was out and had left "Elmo" at my parents house. Elmo, decided that he would try to jump down all the basement steps. So he did and from what I heard he did a good job of it. He jumped so hard that he cleared all the stairs and smashed into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. My Mom jumped up and ran to see what had happened. There he was just looking up at her with those same eyes, as if to deny everything. Except one thing gave him away, he was limping and couldn't walk on his rear left leg. Well, that did it, I got the panic page and came running home ASAP. At first I thought he broke his back because that was what my mother had described to me over the phone. By the time I got there I found that it wasn't his back but truely his leg. We all jumped into the care and taxied him to the the clinic. After a long wait he was Xrayed and was diagnosed with what looked like a growth plate separation in his hip. What a mess, basically hip surgery was the only answer. They wanted to cut the hip bone so that it would be permantly dislocated but still functional. At least that's what she said.
We all went home and the next day took little "Elmo" to my usual vet, were he also concurred that while it was hard to tell it did look like a hip problem. Funny thing was that he never actually examined Elmo physically, he just looked at the Xrays. I, being the skeptic that I am, asked him if I could get a second opinion from an expert in the field - after all I owed the dog at least that much. Later that day I took Elmo over to the specialist. He looked at the Xrays and physically examined Elmo. After extensive examination and several more Xrays and new finding was arrived at. It wasn't his hip but possibly the lower growth plate in his knee and only time would tell to see if it healed. Two weeks went bye, we tried to keep him calm and caged-up. An almost impossible task and subsequently the knee didn't heal although Elmo sure could get around pretty quick on three legs. Back to the doctor he went. This time it was the knife for Elmo, two pins were inserted into his knee to pin the two separated parts. Two more months of almost no activity for this little devil. After about the second week of having the operation he began to use his leg again. All the muscle was atrophied and really weak and so was my pocket book, for I was now broke. Elmo, was now the Six million Dollar Dog. Well not quite six million but it sure seemed like it to me.
Anyway that's my little story about Elmo. I should add that Elmo's totally back to normal, evidence being that he ate part of my couch last week.