My dog Leroy recently turns 10 years old. He is a black Labrador retriever. Like many dogs of his breed, he loves to run after tennis balls and frisbees. When he was a puppy, he ran so fast, I thought he must have a racing dog in his ancestry. He never got tired either, he could run and run all day long. My arm gave out before his legs did.

Leroy has always been a happy excited dog. He loves people, never bites, and never argues with other dogs. He is somewhat of a loner preferring to chase after a ball than wrestle with other dogs.

Little by little, year by year, he started to slow down. He still loved to run, but it took more of a toll on his body. A month ago, he was running after a ball and took a nasty tumble. He limped all the way home and was not improving. We took him to the vet and it turned out he had torn his ACL and meniscus.

We booked surgery for him and he just got back yesterday. He is not happy at all. Take a look at his face.

We didn’t have dog health insurance and this was pretty expensive. Ten thousand dollars to surgically fix his leg. This is much more than we anticipated, but the alternative seemed much more devastating.

The recovery will be slow. Two months of sitting still will be a serious challenge. Especially in week 4 when he feels better, but still needs to stay still. I am anticipating alot of whining. Hopefully, the two months will go quickly and he will be back to ball chasing before you know it.

This has obviously nothing to do with design, but I use this blog to journal life events too.