He is already sitting up and taking food, His rear legs won’t support him yet and the vets are now more concerned about the extensive bruising and muscle trauma but they are convinced this will heal.

He also lost several of his front teeth somehow. His head was not injured so I have no idea how that happened. The vets don’t think he will miss the teeth.

Pet affection as you put it usually makes the difference, but I too understand for some, the option is lost.

He’s still pretty young, so he could heal up just fine. Does the vet say he’s liable to get most of his mobility back?

I have friends who adopt rescue mastiffs. One of the puppies (25 lbs. at 8 weeks) was born without a hip joint, but she got around pretty well for all that, partly because she lived in a home where people loved her. Based on affection, Gatsby has an excellent chance of making a fine recovery.

Good luck to him, and to you and Alice.

You are right, the rules change if they have a chance to get well and function. And there’s one thing about dogs – they’d damn well do the same and more for you.

Best wishes to you both.

Arf

I know all too well about medical cost for pets. One year old Samoyed (Sammy) born with internal complications had 2 operations at UC Davis along with blood transfusions. They took one kidney, half her intestines and had to make a sling to hold her insides together. On medication for her whole life of 16 years even though the docs only gave her 5-7 years to live. When we would move and have to get a new vet and they took x-rays they couldn’t believe what they saw even though we would explain it before hand.

Worth every penny.

Best to Gatsby

I bought a five hundred dollar generator to keep the aquarium up and running until electricity came back on.

The vet recommended putting her down but he would treat the cat for big bucks. The odds were about the 1% you mention and she would not survive more than a few months at that. We elected to let her go. If she had been younger it might have been a much harder decision.

Regarding going the extra mile, an interesting part of the pre-op routine for my dog was resuscitation instructions, in case the surgery starts going South. They offered (1) dnr, (do not resuscitate), (2) aggressive CPR, with defib and the usual methods used to save a human, (3) the full Monte with the ventilator.

I let Alice choose from 1 or 2. I just can’t picture Gatsby hooked up to ventilator for a year or two.

She picked 2. Thank god it didn’t come to that.

It was my kid’s rat, named Pippin, a two-dollar feeder rodent she brought home to save from being eaten by a snake. I don’t know how she managed that, I didn’t ask. Knowing my daughter, I visualized a python tied in a knot somewhere.

We overfed the damn thing and it got fat and had a stroke or something that screwed up its back end. I had to feed it by hand now and then after that, and when it had problems it went to the vet. More than once.

This is what I do for a two-dollar rat, kid. Think of what I would do for you.

Spent a lot more on our dog during her final years. My view on it is if there’s one chance in a hundred they can be healed, I’ll take it.