A Tale of Two Bones

Sometimes bones hurt. Sometimes bones are a treat. It all depends on who you ask in my house whether or not they consider bones a good story or bad.

First, the bad bones. Friday as Mr. Monkeygirl and I were getting ready to go out for the night, the phone rang. I could tell by the look on Mr. M's face that something was going on that wasn't good. Skaterboy called to ask us to meet him at the ER. This is never good, so Mr. M. took off to meet him. We have been through this drill before so we figured it was probably a sprain but better safe than sorry right? Well, this time they really do think he broke the bone in his left hand. Of course, with the swelling and the growth plates, they couldn't be sure so they put him in a half cast and told us to consult an Orthopedic Surgeon. We will know more tomorrow. I hope for his sake it isn't broken and he doesn't need a full cast. Summer in the midwest can be brutal when your arm is wrapped in fiberglass!

Now the good bones. In an effort to make life easier at home, we have been attending obedience classes with Coal. It is as much for us as it is for him. I have to admit, it is really working. As the instructor kindly put it, Coal is "goofy". He is full of energy and is a friendly dog. Sometimes he is just too friendly. The first week of class, we could barely contain him and he barked so long and so loud, I thought we were going to get kicked out of class. Now, he is calm, cool and collected. Well, sort of.

A few months ago, we couldn't have anyone come over because he was so out of control. Jumping, knocking people over, who knows what else he would do. Now - he still gets excited (stay out of range of his tail - it can be lethal) and is wiggly but he isn't jumping on people. He has changed so much that we have even taken him into public. He loves going to parties in the park and is very well behaved. He loves it when people want to pet him and I'm not fearful that he will jump all over them anymore. Tonight, he was spectacular in class. We do "recalls" where we go to the opposite side of the room and call our dogs to us. Coal is easily distracted but tonight, despite the 6 other dogs in our class sitting around and 5 new puppies to distract him, the instructor could hardly keep him from running to us immediately! I think he deserves a great big bone for being such a good boy.