Detour!

Well, another one of life's little unexpected mishaps has come my way. Yesterday evening, on the way home from my physical therapy session, I reached into the back seat in an effort to control my dog, who is going ballistic, grabbed on to her collar, and had my hand painfully wrenched and twisted. I instantly knew something was gravely injured and spent rest of the evening icing the wounded hand, which was swollen and very painful to the touch. I temporarily splinted it using a tennis ball and sock to keep the hand largely immobilized during the night, which was helpful, no doubt, but while the swelling had gone down some this morning, it was clear that a doctor's visit was in order.

Pouting over my inconvenient injury.

So, I swung by doctor's office this afternoon where they gently and sympathetically poked and prodded and determined that an x-ray was definitely a good idea to rule out a possible fracture. The x-rays came back looking great, so what I am in possession of is a very nasty hand sprain. This is somewhat awkward because it is my right hand and I am severely right-handed. I am very clumsy doing even very simple tasks with my left hand, such as eating or brushing my teeth, so for the next few days at least, until the less severely sprained middle finger heals, it looks like I will be spending most my time writing with the help of my headset. The 1st joint of my pinky finger is the most damaged, but fortunately, once I have my index and middle finger working again, I may be able to resume some of my normal activities..

Why were you so worked up, pup?
Abbey behaving in a perfectly mellow way earlier in the day.

One of the things I will be doing this week is keeping a close eye on the dog. Her behavior in the car yesterday was very strange. She had been suspicious of small children on the sidewalk, growled at people sitting in their cars and not even looking at her, and overly upset by people walking by the car. It's perhaps not so unusual for her to be worked up up the sight of a large German Shepherd being walked next to the car, but her reaction was really quite extreme, seeing as she is not a dog that goes ricocheting around the backseat even when she is excited by the sight of another dog, which is why I tried to grab her. I don't know if she wasn't feeling well, if there has been some change in my behavior that is making her feel more protective, or if she has been feeling bored and has become frustrated, but I have decided to increase the amount of training I'm giving her, which will be good for mental stimulation, fun, and reinforcing my position as a leader who doesn't need to be protected.