Yesterday evening

Yesterday evening Biggles, our crazy labrador boy, suddenly walked on three legs. He had been outside; if the weather is nice, the French doors are usually open and the dogs can walk in and out of the house whenever they want to. So whatever he had been doing outside, he hurt his left front paw. I checked his paw, no thorns or other nasty things in his foot and when I touched his wrist, it clearly hurt. Since our vet had his consulting hour just at that time, I decided to take Biggles to the vet to check him out. Unfortunately it turned out to be 'boy's night' at the vets. The waiting room was packed with male dogs. One of them immediately started growling at our Binkyboy, who didn't appreciate the hostile attitude and growled back. I told him not to do that, and he settled down at my feet, back turned to the growler. Then another dog entered. He looked at Biggles, Biggles looked at him and then they both went WHAWHAWHAGRRRR. So the owner took the other dog outside again and waited there for their turn. Then a guy with two very cute little terriers came in. A boy and a girl. He sat next to us, which I thought wasn't a great idea, so I moved a couple of chairs, explaining that I didn't want to take the risk of Biggles eating the cute boy terrier, to where the first growling dog had been waiting for his turn. Biggles sniffed and sniffed and then decided to remove the smell of that other guy and put up his paw. His hind one. You get the picture. So we had to own up to the vet nurse that we had a little accident and she cleaned it up. Anyway, after a while it was our turn. Usually the vet comes to our house, we know him quite well and regard him as a friend, so when he opened the door and said: "Hey Biggles, your turn!", Biggles stormed in on all four legs and wildly enthusiastic greated his friend. He totally forgot he couldn't put weight on his front paw. "So, what's the matter?", vet asked. "He can't stand on his front paw", I said. "His left one. Only, he has forgotten it now of course." We both watched Biggles jumping up and down and wriggling his whole body into all sorts of bends. "Are you sure?", vet asked. "Yep! His left paw." Vet frowned. Biggles wriggled. Vet tried to lift Biggles up on the table. Biggles wriggled even more. Not an easy task to lift 30 kilos of wriggling muscle onto a table, but vet persisted and soon we had Biggles lying on the table, me performing 'the dog hold' to keep him there. Biggles sighed. Vet kneaded Biggles' toes, pulled and pushed the leg, and concluded that he had hurt some tendons (?) near his little pinky equivalent quite badly because when he touched that Biggles closed his mouth, while during the rest of the examination he kept breathing heavily, tongue hanging out. Biggles, that is. Not the vet. "Since he is already on painkillers (he has OCD in both hind heels and gets a painkiller every day along with supplements to make his joints work more smoothly) I can only prescribe rest", vet said. Then he wanted to lift Biggles from the table again. But Biggles decided to jump off from the other side of the table, where I could just catch him and prevent him from falling on his stupid head. He suddenly remembered that he had a sore paw and we left the vet on five legs and went home where we settled on the couch and turned on the tv. An episode of NCIS had just started. There was a dead man's body lying on the coroner's table. Cut open from head to waist. Skin and most of the flesh folded aside, with the camera closing in on the ribcage. When it panned out again and you could see the total bloody mess in all it's glory lying there on that metal table, I noticed that his private parts were sort of Ken-of-the-Barbie-kind. You know. Just sort of a bulge. Nothing more. I've noticed before that private parts are obscured in American crime investigation series. Either by a very bright light that shines exactly on that spot, so you can only see a white glare, or by someone standing in the 'right place', or by the Ken-of-the-Barbie-kind 'solution'. Which amazes me. Apparently the producers have decided that seeing a dead body, cut open, the bloody mess inside on show, or a person falling from a roof (same episode), gallons of blood gushing from his head, isn't half as shocking as actually seeing someones penis. Or, heaven forbid, pubic hair. It's a strange world we live in. Additional information, thanks to Don't Bug Me's comment: OCD: Osteochondrosis dissecans Osteochondrosis dissecans, commonly known as OCD, is a disease of the cartilage that can affect various joints in a dog. In any joint in the body two bones come together and movement is allowed between them. Where the two bones meet an exceptionally smooth area of cartilage covers their surfaces. This acts as a cushion and protects the underlying bone. If anything disrupts this smooth cartilage surface, movement of the joint becomes painful. In a dog with OCD, this cartilage is damaged or grows abnormally. Instead of being attached to the bone it covers, it separates or cracks, causing great pain. In some cases, small pieces of cartilage break off and float free in the joint. These pieces of cartilage do not die, but rather continue to grow and increase in size. These are known as joint mice. source: www.peteducation.com