my poor gracie

last night we were all in the backyard trying to be all "family" like... chris and i were talking about gracie's weight and how much she needed to start getting rid of the extra pounds. chris and i think up this fantastic way that he and i are both going to make efforts to get gracie slim and trim again... so our plan involves of course the kids to stop feeding her from the table, me running with her in the mornings, taking evening walks, and chris throwing ball with her at night in the backyard. we also were talking about getting the dogs and the kids back out on the lake this summer... the dogs always went till we had kids...

so, after all the chatter amongst us, we were throwing ball with gracie and on the last throw of the night... she stops using all four legs and goes to three... remember bubba all of three months ago???? and she cannot walk. she is in really horrible pain. chris has to carry her into the house and up the steps. i take her to the vet this morning... she has ruptured her ACL. surgery required. pain meds and low activity for the next few days. and then next week we need to start getting the extra weight off of her by taking her swimming in the evenings...

chris and i are so heartbroken! she was our "first baby" and i started thinking of all the horrible things that could come from the vet's appointment this morning. my biggest fear was that there wouldn't be much that they could do with her being this overweight (she's 60lbs and needs to be about 45lbs) and that she would have to be put down. but, she doesn't and we are just hoping that we can get some weight off of her before her surgery. we are thinking that she will need surgery in the next couple of weeks... keep her in your thoughts... thanks!