Broken

I remember telling him as well as mentioning in previous posts that our house will still stand after a 12 month deployment, it might be completely surrounded in duct tape, but it will stand.

Lately I feel the same goes for his (our) dog too. Dakota is his baby. We bought her together, but she lived and slept with him every night during flight school.

I boarded Dakota over Labor Day weekend. It was my plan all along. His grandfather passed just 2 days before I planned on heading home. They scheduled the wake for that Tuesday/Wednesday. My friend said she could pick up Dakota on Tuesday morning and stay with her for those two days.

I received "frantic" texts and voicemails from her about Dakota chewing through her splint. I told her to simply drop her off at the vet/boarding place.

When I picked her up on Thursday afternoon, Dakota managed to slip out of her splint before we even reached the car. I picked her up and the doctor re-splinted her.

Today, she managed to slip out of her splint again. Instead of taking her to the vet. I re-splinted her myself thanks to the medical tape I decided was a necessity.

I looked down at her nails and saw they needed to be cut. In two years, I cut her nails once since I run her so much, the pavement keeps them short.

Guess what happened?

Yep. I cut one of her nails too short and her claw started gushing blood. I found a napkin and wrapped her claw, once again with the medical tape.

He asked to see her this afternoon on the webcam. Once he saw her, he asked me, "What did you do to her". I wanted to laugh...and then cry. I responded with, "Dakota and I are a mess these days".

To make it up to her, I scrambled some eggs and poured it over her dog food. She's now sound asleep on my lap where I hope not to break her any further.