When bad goes to worse goes to shit

This weekend was supposed to be  a breakaway for Flip and myself. We both had pretty hectic and rough schedules the past few weeks and we were planning to go to Parys, in the Free State to have a rest. Its about an hour's drive from Joburg, so it was ideal for a weekend.

We booked a place at the Smilin Thru Resort, expecting a blissful retreat and a lovely little cottage to stay in. I would never in my life recommend this place. It was the pits. It was absolutely horrible. The environment was nice yes, as our cottage was wedged between the Vaal river and a swimming pool, but this cottage looked like it hadn't seen humans in years. Gross. So I phoned my mom to tell her about how shit this place is. Luckily, I did.

Yesterday morning, I got a very mysterious phone call from my brother, asking to speak to Flip and I immediately thought that something was wrong, something had happened, but Flip wouldn't tell me. I phoned my mom to find out, and she immediately started crying. She had driven over my dog.

This is my baby. Her name is Liefie. I got her in 2000, after another dog of mine was stolen. She is the love of my life, the absolute most loved possession I have ever had. And here I thought she was dead. My world fell apart. I couldn't stop crying. In my state, I understood that they already put her to sleep and I didn't even get the chance of saying goodbye. It tore me apart.

But after non-stop crying for about an hour, even in the shower, I sobered up enough to phone my mom again and ask her what happened exactly. She was still alive! And still at the vet's, although, she was drugged to keep the pain away. We got in our bakkie and cancelled our stay. The somewhat two hour drive took us about an hour and fifteen minutes. I still had the chance to say goodbye.

We went to the vet and I sat with her for a while, trying to get her to drink some water and eat a beeno. The latter she ate with vigour! My mom and I then discussed Liefie's tendency to not pee when she's indoors and we carried her outside so that she can go to the loo. My wonderful dog stood up! She stood up all by herself, even though she had a broken bone and she walked around. She proved that there was still so much fight and so much life left in her that it would just be unfair to put her to sleep.

My parents are both pensioners and are at home most of the time. So my mom decided to amputate the broken leg, as it has been broken in multiple places and an operation will just cost a lot of money and her leg might not even properly heal. My wonder dog is going to have only three legs after tomorrow, but at least she is still alive! However, she is still in danger, as there is a lot of swelling and we aren't quite sure what the full extent of internal damage is, but the doctor says he doesn't think there is any internal damage.

I will accept it when she dies of old age. That's different. To quote my mom: "You and I are still going to chew old bones together."