Adler's Injury at the Dog Park

Adler was a little tired today but not too tired where I didn't think she needed more exercise. She spent all day yesterday playing in my mom's backyard in the suburbs with my four-year-old neice and rolling in the green grass.

So to round out her weekend, I thought I would take her to the Wicker Park dog park today. Since there are no dog parks close to our condo, we have to drive. So I loaded Adler into my two-door car (because my husband had our SUV) and off we went. Not too many people there today which is good. I hate when it gets super crowded and there are too many dogs. Today, Adler went right in and was having fun playing with all the other dogs. We had been there for about 20 minutes when I see Adler sprinting after some dog - and then out of the corner of my eye I see another dog sprinting toward this dog too. In an instant, I knew this was going to be trouble. The other dog plowed right into the side of Adler's hind leg, taking her out and causing her to do a somersault in the gravel. I held my breath as the dust cleared and prayed that Adler was okay. I didn't want to be the overreactive pet owner but already images were flashing in my mind of Adler hurt and how I would break it to my husband that our dog broke its leg because I took her to the dog park.

Adler got up. She was dazed, a little disoriented and limping. Screw being overreactive I got up from where I was sitting on a bench and called her to me. She came. Good, I thought, she still knows her name, but bad, because she doesn't usually come to me when I call her in the dog park. I checked out her back leg while stroking her fur and telling her she'd be okay. While I was checking Adler out, some little girl was trying to get me to meet her aunt's dog and I wanted her to disappear. I think it's dumb to bring kids into a dog park. It's like asking for trouble and I was focused on Adler, not being nice to this kid. Anyway, Adler seemed okay. She wasn't whimpering. She could still walk and I wanted her to shake off the pain not favor it. She did. After about another 40 minutes in the dog park, she was running around again. Some lady mentioned to me that dogs colliding is bound to happen in the dog park. That's fine but not to my dog. She's okay though. Snoring at my feet as I type and probably just as happy that she went to the dog park today, even if it means she'll be a little sore tomorrow.