Adventures of an 8 pound dog, part 1

The dude's had a lot going on lately.

First, I'll start off by saying that he's OK.

A few weeks ago on a Sunday, it was a warm spring day. Cotton wanted to be outside. Except, he couldn't seem to be outside and not bark his fool head off. I kept going outside and telling him to be quiet, and then he'd wait until I was back inside and start yapping again. This went on for most of the day. I made him come inside about 10 times because he was being so loud (he doesn't bark nearly as much when inside the house) but he kept asking to go out again and I'm a sucker; so I kept letting him out again.

Finally, shortly after dinner Cotton started barking again. I'd had enough. I stomped outside, slammed the door shut, and told Cotton to shut the F up and get the H inside.

I might have said that at a fairly loud volume as well.

Cotton, sensing that I was serious, climbed the stairs up to the deck, took a few steps and then started to yelp at the top of his lungs. I ran over to him and picked him up and he continued to cry long after I'd scooped him up and carried him inside. Something was seriously wrong, but I didn't know what. I wondered if he'd gotten a sliver in his foot, if he'd pulled a muscle, pinched a nerve or cut himself somehow.

Except, at the same time as I was frantically trying to figure out what was wrong with my dog and make it better, I was also thinking that my neighbours could hear everything that was going on, but they couldn't see anything; and I'll bet they thought I was abusing my dog.

I managed to refrain from opening the door and calling out to say that I didn't do it, and checked Cotton out instead. There was no blood. He let me straighten and flex his leg, and before long, he was walking around on it again. That night, I took him for a walk and trotted around the block as happy as a clam.

Except I swear to God that he pulled that leg up and hobbled around on three legs whenever we were home and he thought I was watching.

The hobbling lasted a few days. Right about the time I was going to bring him to the vet, he started using all four legs again... most of the time.

But that's not quite enough drama in the Dude's world. There's more.