Part 2

And it continues...

....As she closes the door, I look at Kody and see her worried chocolate brown eyes, trusting me. How could I let her down? How did she get the 10 miles away? My theory seemed completely irrational but it made sense to me: my neighbor Mrs. Cannon had called me several times, telling me that if she caught my dogs eating her cat food one more time she was going to call animal control. And I took her seriously, since she had called the police before on me when I had gone to Oregon to visit for a week. I had left my animals in the care of my friend Doug. He worked evening shifts, so he usually came in the middle of the night to feed the animals. But Mrs. Cannon concluded that the animals were being starved and called the police. Of course, it was cleared up, but I still came to the conclusion that she was an extremely nosy neighbor. So back to my theory: so I think she decided to take it into her own hands and lured Kody into her car with treats. Then I believe she took Kody out to the Bull Mountains and dropped her off. But little did she know that Kody would find her way home. But she happened to get hit by a car or something. Of course there are holes in my theory- like why would she leave Kody’s collar with my phone number on it, on her. And why would anybody in their right mind do anything like that? But it’s the only theory I could come up with. I can’t wait until Mrs. Cannon sells her property, I will throw a party.
“So have you come to a decision?”
“Yes, I think Kody has convinced me that she really wants only 3 legs. All her friends have 4 and she thinks it would be really fun to be the odd one out.”
“I think you’re making the right decision.” She said through a muffled laugh. Dr. Shannon was a pretty 40-ish woman who you could tell loved her work, but didn’t enjoy the giving of bad news. “In the long run, it will be better.”
What if my parents had had the option of having my leg amputated after the accident? I mean, my leg was broken pretty badly, and they didn’t really know the outcome or have the money. Why should this be any different? I really hope I am making the right decision.
“You guys take installment payments, right?” I ask half joking. But to my surprise they did. Just my luck.
So Kody went through the surgery and recuperated at the vet’s. I went and visited her every day, even though I was taking up extra hours to pay for the surgery. Her back leg healed, since it had only been sprained and she did wonderful despite the absence of her front leg. She was walking in a matter of days, and running a mile every day with me in a matter of weeks.
At first, she did plenty of nose dives, and at the operation site, the wound opened up a couple times from her hitting it on the ground. But all in all she took everything very gracefully, or as gracefully as a 3-legged dog can. And I thank God every day for her companionship....