I’m feeling terrible today. Last night while walking Chewy, I stopped at my neighbor’s house who was outside playing with her new puppy. She’s a 6-week-old Husky, with one blue eye and one brown, and incredibly adorable. I picked up the puppy and was holding it, and everything was going great, and all of a sudden the puppy started squirming.
I’ve been in this situation before, so I quickly tried to put the puppy down and before I knew it, she had wriggled out of my hands and smacked her head on the concrete driveway. The puppy started crying (screaming) and I panicked. This happened when Buster was about 4 weeks old and I rushed him to the emergency vet with my niece, crying the whole way, because I was sure I’d killed him. The vet told gave Buster some anti-inflammatory meds and told me to watch him for the rest of the night but he ended up being fine.
But this was another person’s puppy and I was freaked out! The puppy probably fell about two feet which isn’t really far but it’s not that close either. I held the puppy until she stopped crying (about 3-5 seconds) and then she just laid very still on my shoulder. I put her down, made sure she could follow my finger with her eyes (like they do in the movies), had her walk around, felt her head for bumps, etc. She walked just fine, no wobbling or stumbling, but she seemed to just want to lie down. I didn’t want her to fall asleep so I tried getting Chewy to play with her, but she wasn’t in the mood to frolic anymore. She did begin running around and biting my hand after about 10 minutes, but just a little more subdued than before. She didn’t seem to be in pain any more, just a little shaken and probably ticked off at me.
I offered to take the puppy to the emergency vet and to pay for it, but the neighbor thought she was OK and didn’t need to go. I apologized a thousand times, but the neighbor never said, “That’s OK,” (not that I blame her). She just kept repeating, “Wow, I was so scared!” Well yeah, so was I. Her use of the word “was” made me think that she didn’t think the dog was injured but I am uber-paranoid so I really wanted to take the dog in, but I couldn’t exactly dog-nap the puppy. She probably wouldn’t trust me to get her to the vet safely anyway. 
I felt (and still feel) awful. I can’t concentrate on anything so I keep googling “puppy concussion”. I know that any sign of injury would be apparent within 24 hours, so as soon as I get home from work I’m going straight to their house to check on the pup. I think I’ll bring a chew toy as a peace offering.
I’m leaving tomorrow for Peru and really would like to know that everything is OK before I go…I can’t have this kind of guilt hanging over me for the entire trip! It’s going to be a very long day of waiting and worrying. If any readers are so inclined, please say a little prayer for the puppy. I just want her to be OK.
