Molly

Having an animal in your life makes you a better human.

I have seven animals in my life – 4 dogs and 3 ~~houseguests~~ cats – and I love each in their own unique ways. Even the cats 😛 . I never formally introduced you to the last three (Jackson, Ashes, or Molly), but Molly deserves her own post today.

If you remember, yesterday I mentioned how much May stunk but then June happened. This is why.

First of all, meet Molly Catherine Bounds!

(at 6 weeks)

Molly is now five months old and ALL PUPPY. Man, she is wild but so much fun. She is very loving and so thankful just to be here. She was found abandoned and taken in by a friend, I ended up dogsitting her for the friend, and fell in love (so did Judson). Molly is also a great pal to go on long walks with. Like I said, she’s five months and already nearly 40 lbs. She is going to be a big dog, probably the biggest of all. She is a black mouth cur (like Old Yeller) and like my beloved Sadie that passed one month before we got Molly.

We left a happy, healthy Molly on Sunday, May 31 when we went to church. Our air conditioning has been out for awhile, so we spent the afternoon at my in-laws. When we came home, Jackson and Ellie, the other two outside dogs, greeted us – but no Molly. Weird. Jud drove around the property and found her in the barn hurt badly. She couldn’t walk, crawl, or anything. The question was, “How?”

(at 4 months)

I took Mol to the vet the next morning who told us some scary news – she had basically been crushed in the butt. Both of her hips were broken, femurs hanging without being in hip sockets, and both growth plates were smashed. We are all still scratching our heads. There is no way she could have been hit by a car this far off the road. She never ventures farther than our barn. The vet said she would have to have climbed up very high and fallen on her butt to do it herself. One way or the other, we had a decision to make. There was no decison as far as I was concerned. We were going to the only hospital in the state of Mississippi who could do the operations Molly needed.

Mississippi State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine saved Molly’s life. She is now more “machine than mutt” according to my brother. She has several pins in her hips, legs, and pelvis, but she is doing so well. One leg required much more invasive and special surgery than the other. However, she was walking within 24 hours of surgery. I picked her up four days later, and we are working on our new normal. She will be crated for 12 weeks with lots of meds and rehab.

I can’t say it enough just how good the surgeons were at MSU. I was called three times a day by the vet students that were in charge of Molly’s treatments and once a day by the attending surgeon on her case. We will be returning in three weeks to recheck her radiographs and make sure the pins are healing properly.

I share all this for you to know that surgery IS an option for pets. It is even affordable. Please give them every chance to live a long and happy life. Molly has a long road ahead, but she should have a chance for a nearly full recovery. Pets really are our family, and they make us better humans. They bring so much love and laughter into our lives, and we become better people because of them.