Well, about the time I thought things were getting back to normal, bam, we hit another curve in the trail of year 2012. Riley blew his other knee. I've been noticing for the last couple of weeks that Riley was struggling some to get up from the resting position but thought it was due to fatigue in his repaired knee. Yesterday, on our hike he didn't run much so I figured once again, fatigue from the repaired knee. He went 7 miles and got a couple of nice points on turkeys and spent a lot of time in mud puddles cooling off before coming home.
This morning Riley and I were chasing each other around the field when he suddenly let out a yelp and quit using his hind left leg. Knowing the familiar gait of a bad knee I took Riley in to see our vet, Katie Wright, who diagnosed my fear as being correct. From there she sent me to the surgeon where Riley was scheduled for a Wednesday operation. So we are now braced for another 12 weeks of boredom. I'm not sure which of us this is roughest on.
Dr. Wright told me that when one knee is blown it usually isn't a case of if the second knee is going to go but when. At least the when is over for Riley and hopefully September 15 will see us back chasing chukars and hopefully at 100%.
One other note I might point out. Each of us are built differently. The hills are not the hills for me anymore unless I have my dog with me. I love hiking the hills with my canine partner as much as he enjoys being there with me. So when he is down I am down. Down time is an eternity when you only have 13 or 14 years together. Tucker taught me that it was alright to love my dogs and Riley has taught me how much I need them.
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