Just thought I would mention this in case some poor soul stumbles across it in future and is able to obtain some reassurance.

Last night, I went round to my neighbour's for dinner. I got back around midnight and Meg was asleep in the armchair. She seemed fine, lots of hugs and tummy tickles, and I gave her a bedtime biscuit. She did not get out of the armchair, but that's not altogether unusual. She's a bit of a 'you come to me and pay homage' sort of a dog.

Anyway, I went up to bed, leaving the light on for her to follow, which she generally does pretty much immediately. I must have fallen asleep the second I lay down (full disclosure: a couple of glasses of wine had been consumed), because the next thing I knew it was 4am, when I woke up to realise Meg had not come upstairs.

I went down to find her lying on the sofa. She seemed rather subdued, and when I tried to encourage her to come upstairs, I discovered that she wasn't able to stand. Her front leg was just completely useless. It wasn't that it was giving way (which has happened a couple of times before), it wasn't able to support her in any way at all, just completely useless, like a rag or something.

I carried her upstairs. She didn't seem to be in any pain, and I checked her leg very thoroughly and manipulated it. I was so worried her elbow had collapsed, and maybe she was in shock or something, but I checked her gums and her heart rate and so on, and there was no indication of anything like that. The leg itself seemed perfectly fine, she just wasn't able to use it. So then I thought she'd done her shoulder, maybe fallen and twisted getting out of the chair, or something like that. To be clear, there are steps for both the chair and the sofa, which she ALWAYS uses, but I though it must have been something like that, and of course, I felt absolutely terrible that I had been sleeping upstairs, quite unaware.

I debated whether to take her to the emergency vet, but by this point she had fallen asleep, and was snoring quite contentedly, so I thought I might as well wait until morning, though this would still mean going to the emergency vet (i.e. calling the vet out. there's no ER round here), as today is a Bank Holiday in the UK, which means everything is closed. That's typical Meg, she always times her 'mishaps' for the most inopportune moment possible. Her initial elbow fracture occurred on the first day of the Queen's diamond jubilee. There was a four day holiday, plus street parties closing half the roads between me and the emergency vet.

Anyway, I didn't really sleep, just lay beside her stressing and imagining all the weeks of rehab that lay ahead, and trying to keep her entertained when she wasn't able to do anything, and of course all the worse scenarios as well. 

So, this morning I tried to get her up, but for AGES she just kept rolling onto her back and wanting tummy tickles, and I was like PLEASE will you just try and stand up so I can see how your leg is, and she was like, nah more tummy tickles please.

So finally, I said to her, look if you get up NOW and come downstairs then I'll give you some chicken. Okay? Otherwise, nada. I expected her to try and stand up and find her front leg couldn't support her. But instead, she just jumped up, danced down the steps off the bed, down the stairs and out to the fridge, where she stood barking for her chicken.

Her leg was TOTALLY FINE. And she was hugely pleased with herself.

So the moral of this rather long-winded (sorry) story is... well, I don't know, but basically, my conclusion is her leg had gone to sleep. She had dead-leg and she couldn't use it, and given that there's just the one in the front, this obviously meant she fell over every time she tried to stand. 

Either that or it was payback for the bloomers trim that she'd endured earlier that day...

The End.

Meg, Clare and Angel Pie xxx