My Dog Missy

I pulled in from school that day and saw my dog Missy running around the yard. I thought my Mom must have let her out during her lunch break and left her out. This happened on a regular basis because Missy was stubborn and never came when we called her. I opened the car door waiting for her to run her paws on my legs in excitement that I was home, something I looked forward to.Today was different though; Missy just sat by my car while I got my book bag out. She just looked at me and gave me a whimper with a wag of her tail. I greeted her with a scratch and ran up the stairs. I opened the door and when I turned around she was sitting at the bottom of the stairs. I thought it was weird so I called for her to come in. She slowly stepped up the first step with a whimper. I knew something was wrong; I picked her up and immediately called my Mom.

After I got off the phone, I took Missy straight to the veterinarian’s office. They said she would be fine if she just rested and that the shot of Advil should help the pain; they thought a car probably nudged her. I took her home confident my best friend, Missy, would be back to normal in a matter of time. That night I went to a classmate’s house to spend the night since my parent’s were going out. I left Missy with food and water by her side and a lot of blankets to keep her warm.The next morning my friend’s mom woke me up and told me my mom was on the phone.

“Mom?”

“Hey, Honey…something’s wrong with Missy.” Tears burned my eyes. Why did I leave her there by herself?

“What is it?” I swallowed slowly, afraid of what she would say next.

“Well, we don’t know, but she can’t move her legs and we are taking her to the hospital right now. You should meet us there soon.”

My friend drove me because I was shaking, afraid of what was going to happen to her. It took thirty minutes but seemed like hours before we finally arrived. When I got to the hospital two of my aunts, my uncle, my cousin and my mom were all there. Although Missy was a huge part of our family I’m sure they were there to support me in case something went wrong.

I walked into the room and my mom was holding her paw and the doctor was talking to her. I looked at Missy, and her eyes looked scared as she scooted close to me so I could hold her. Her eyes were saying, Take me home, make it better. It was the hardest thing to sit there and hear her whimpering, looking at the IV in her paw and not being able to do anything. The veterinarian was talking, but all I heard was that she was paralyzed from the waist down because of a slipped disc and we could do surgery but it may not help. We left her there that night, and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My heart pulled as I walked out the door, afraid that I would never see her again.

The next couple of days we debated about what to do. We decided to put Missy to sleep so she wouldn’t be in any more pain. I never saw Missy again after I left the hospital. If you’ve never had to go through this you probably won’t understand how hard this was. I missed her snuggling beside me in bed and the eyes that showed she loved me; it took me months to quit waiting for her to come to my car door and scratch my leg with her paws.