WSN mascot health update

For over 12 years, Freckles the Wonder Dog has been the WSN mascot. On Friday before Christmas, he pinched a nerve in his neck or back, or both. Of course, at the time we didn't know that. All we knew was that he had random yelping at all times of day and night that would send us all in to shock. He was obviously in a ton of pain. We took him to the vet emergency room, and came home not knowing how damaged he was, but with lots of pain killers. I wasn't sure if they were for the dog or me. Props to our daughter-in-law Laura, a nurse who helped us figure out that the muscle relaxers were making him work too hard to breathe and seemed to be making him worse.

By Christmas he was doing better, but still in a lot of pain and we started searching for different solutions. We had heard that chiropractors can help dogs, and being the son of a chiropractor I was pretty convinced it could help. I just couldn't imagine getting the Beagle to lay on a table and let someone work on his spine.

Yesterday we took him to a vet who not only does spinal manipulation, but also accupunture and food supplements. Who knew? I had to see this, and also hope that it works, cause watching our pet in pain has not been pretty. And there won't be any surgery. I've had him with 2 paws in the grave over the last 10 days, so it kind of felt like a last resort. Let's just say I wasn't going to watch Marley and Me, or Old Yeller, or any other pet movie that makes grown men cry.

Well, the experience was awesome. The Pet Chiro really knew her stuff. You can see her treatments frm the pics. The Wonder Dog isn't dancing on his back feet (except if its begging for steak, when he seems to recover really quickly - "only a flesh wound"); but he is defintely doing a lot better, and we hope he will keep improving. He still lets out an occassional yelp but his overall response is better everyday. It looks like Freckles will continue his reign as the WSN Mascot for a little while longer, imparting wisdom during those long daily walks in East Orlando.

I couldn't believe he allowed this! And have no idea if it helped.
Well, 2009 is just about 6 hours away here on the East Coast, and over the next few days I have much to say as we get this year rolling, including -
*my personal focus for 2009
*my favorite coffees of 2008, and
*my favorite story of God using a student to touch other lives from this past year.

Stay tuned in 2009.