May 13th 2006 4:32 pm
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This is how it all began. I went to the physical therapist this week and she told me and my mama that I am showing the beginning signs of a torn ACL. My mama was very sad because she thought I was just getting over my knee problems. I am just starting to get good at flyball and we were both very sad because we thought I would have to stop playing the sport that I love. The physical therapist told my us that if my knee was going to tear it would do going to no matter what I do. If I stopped playing and jumping it would probably prolong the actual tear but my quality of life would go down. So she told us to just let me be a dog and have fun. If it my ACL was going to tear it would be better sooner then later because having surgery is much easier on a young dog then an older one. The best advice my physical therapist gave us was to strengthen me up as much as possible so if I ever did have to have surgery I would be able to recover quickly. The physical therapist also told us that swimming is very good for me because it is low impact but a very good work out. Here is where the adventure beings. My mama thought about this long and hard. She could take me to the lake every week, it is sort of far, 40 min away. The physical therapist told her that I would need to swim at least twice a week for it to actually help me. It would be very hard to take me to the lake twice a week because it is so far and because gas prices are so much these days. But if she had to she was willing to do it. Then she thought about taking me to hydrotherapy but looked into the prices and OMD it is like $50 bucks a session and your session could be anywhere between 5-30 min. Hmm… back to the drawing board, what else could my mama do!

She bought me my very own pool!! It was the deepest pool with the shortest diameter pool that she could find because we don’t have a big backyard. It took her a very long time to put together even though on the box it said 3 easy steps. When she was done she thought it would have been much easier if she had Grandpa do it. Then it took forever to fill with water. I patiently waited for like 45 minutes. Dang!! It must have used a lot of water, good thing it’s the one utility my mama doest pay for. So finally when everything was set up she put my life vest on and in I went. We didn’t know if it was going to be deep enough for me to swim in but it was! The water was a bit cold though. My mama will have to put some hot water in it next time. I had a blast though! I saw circles and my mama threw my ball for me. I was having lots of fun until my mama grabbed the handle on my life vest and made me swim in place for 5 minutes. What a mean mommy! I guess I got a good work out but that should be considered doggie abuse. I got such a good work out I’m very tired now and can barely keep my eyes open to finish this. I just want everypup out there that they should get a pool to swim in. It is very fun and a very good way to keep in shape. Until next time pups, Super Dog is going to take a nap.