There is a good chance you have forgotten about my yellow lab, Molly, and her handicap. I wrote about it in January 2024. It has been a minute. If you recently read my new book “Montana Wild Woman,” you will be more in tune with Molly and her fibrocartilage embolism, FCE.

You can buy my book on Amazon or click this link to read the blog post about what happened to Molly. (Yes, I’m going to plug my book whenever I can, as I’m not very good at promoting or self-aggrandizing. If you buy the book, please leave a review on Amazon. Thanks.)

Molly can walk using all four of her legs. It is not pretty, it is not efficient, and she does get open wounds from dragging the bad leg on dirt or pavement. We still have yoga mat pathways on our hardwood floors to keep her from losing her footing as easily. She still loves to swim. Swimming is her best activity for not feeling handicapped. She can not run. Okay, she can run, but she mostly runs with her massively strong front legs dragging her backend which is trying with all its effort to unsuccessfully keep up. She chases chipmunks at high speed in this manner. She will excitedly come to say hi to you in the same fashion. It makes everyone think we should amputate the bad leg. But they only see excited Molly trying to run. They don’t see Molly walk on her own for a mile on the soft flat trail by the river in Hamilton. They don’t see her walk out on the driveway every morning and keep watch as Brett takes a hot tub. The leg does work, just not 100%, maybe not even 50%, but it does work. As long as I see it attempting to work, I will not amputate.

It’s been exactly 19 months since her spinal stroke. I wish I had a Garmin on her wheelchair. I would like to clock how many miles she has put on it. I have a feeling the manufacturer never intended their dog carts to go on forest trails or fat tire biking in the snow. The cart has been welded, screwed and jury-rigged back to working multiple times. We’ve ordered replacement parts. The company was shocked to hear the parts had worn out. Brett has greased and repacked the wheel bearings several times. Molly takes it in the river to get a drink. It is probably time for a new one.

The fat tire biking was a mistake as her wheelbase was wider than the trail. She flipped in the cart on a downhill, and we had to stop and get her back upright. Picture a turtle on its back, but a panicked turtle who is fighting to right herself.

Molly still goes to a chiropractor, a new one. Brett can also do spinal adjustments on her now. He does PT on her every night. She still uses her ramp to get in and out of the car. She still has a ramp at both of her dog doors. Our bed is on the floor with no bed frame and no box springs. She can easily get into bed with us. Everyone who sees her and doesn’t know her just assumes she is an old dog. She is six.

I follow an FCE support group on Facebook. I’m hoping to see a new treatment, medicine, or PT that will help her get better faster.

I backpacked to the magical camping spot on Big Creek and talked to the large tamarack trees, asking them to communicate with their friends and send their healing magic to Molly. She has been walking better since that trip.

I would love to take her backpacking again. Nerve damage takes time. She will get better; she might not backpack, but she will get better.

What book am I going to recommend for this Wild About Books blog? Currently, I’m reading “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler for my book club. I’m also reading “The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life” by Lisa Miller. Both books touch on a “new age” thought process. “Parable” is a dystopian book in which the protagonist is writing her own Bible as she goes through the destruction of a world that has gone rogue through dishonest, greedy politicians. The Bible and the religion of her preacher father don’t give her what she needs. The book is every man for himself and your best protection is a gun, but as the book progresses you realize that the best protection is a community of people who are willing to look out for each other.

“Awakened Brain” is about how spirituality(not religion) is an innate desire in everyone and should be explored and not suppressed. The book encourages seeking out serendipitous events, believing in intuition, feelings and believing that the universe has your back. To believe that people enter and leave your life for a reason not by chance. Things will work out in the end. I find that it would be difficult to live in this world without that belief. If you believe the world is out to get you, you’ll always be on the defense, always expecting the worst. This would be depressing. This is the basis of the book, that spirituality is the gateway to curing depression. It is the gateway to believing that your energetic young lab is unable to run with her friends and there must be a reason, a lesson to be learned by all.

I was so excited by Molly’s progress that I took her for a walk without her cart. She started poorly and then got worse. She drank from the river, and her bandage got wet and fell off on the way back. She dragged the leg, and her wound opened. I tried to wrap up her bleeding wound with the wrecked bandage, but it came off. This is how we hobbled back to the car, rewrapping, rewrapping, rewrapping. Her paw was trashed.

I’m an idiot. I’ve done this before. Had major optimistic feelings of her progress and healing, only to have been over-enthusiastic. One step forward, two steps back. Should I amputate? Could she learn to run on three legs and get to be an energetic lab again? Is the other leg strong enough from the injury to carry the weight of her back end? Fuck.

I’m watching impatiently for a serendipitous event.

More great adventures and book recommendations can be found on my blog “Wild About Books.” Hit the follow button.