Almost Lost It

I came home Friday and I found the dogs playing in the backyard. I called them over to give them their evening snack (as usual). Our daily routine: Trini gently grabs the snack from my hand and takes it over to the grass, she then stands there, and waits to see if I'm give out more snack which she will then come to "collect" (like a chipmunk) - ultimately heads back to her little area where she will then eat at her own leisurely pace. Ripi on the other hand needs supervision. She's overly excited when it comes to food (a little like her mom) and regularly forgets to chew, almost on the verge of choking. To offset this behavior I end up breaking up her snack and hand feeding her pieces at a time (it's time consuming but I don't know canine CPR - so I think it's well worth my efforts) :D

So I change out of my work clothes and head back outside when I notice that Ripi's dewclaw on her right paw isn't looking too good. My only explanation is that she may have gotten it stuck on something. The nail was hanging on for dear life, there was some blood (so that made me weak). I pulled myself together and upon closer inspection, realized the dewclaw was obviously broken. The nail broke at the base and was still very much attached, it also bent to the left. Believe, you , me - I a little freaked out. Carlos eventually got home, he saw it, and we decided to take her to the groomer or vet the next morning. All the while, Ripi is prancing around like nothings wrong and periodically stopping to lick her wound. I of course call my parents for some sound advice, like any good Mexican mother - my mom recommended that I put savila (aloe) on the wound to promote healing (because it really does work). So later that night, while she's hanging out in the living room I tackle her and try to apply the slippy, bitter, goo to her paw. As soon as I put it on her, she started to lick it off (so much for that)!

Torn off dewclaw
Ripi's good paw








The piece of dewclaw that Ripi chewed off!

The next morning, she was walking around on the patio and all of a sudden started to chew on something -- I walked over to her and realized, it was the broken dewclaw. Oh that resourceful Ripi.

**FYI - Dewclaw definition: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewclaw