Sadie is a 5yr old English Springer Spaniel. She has a mild temperament and super sweet demeanor. She loves to meet new friends, very passive and submissive to other dogs. I go back and forth to whether she thinks she is human or she thinks she is a 6lb toy poodle! She gravitates toward smaller dogs, playing and romping around. She goes pheasant hunting once a year (out of state) with David (my husband). When she finishes the trip having retrieved one bird, we all celebrate! She is very much a house dog.  My son would ride her around when he was smaller. Her hunting skills are not our focus, she does it all on instinct and a little prompting from David. She knows where the treats are and one is never enough. She has been through a couple of injuries, both accidental...stepped on object sticking out of the snow, took on a barb wire fence on a hunting trip one year, but nothing that kept her down for long.

We use an invisible fence in our residential yard, which is quite large. She has been raised to be free to run and explore within those limits. Never really used the "shock" part of the fence (that always bothered me), but responded just to the beep from collar. Eventually, the limits became basically memorized and she wouldn't even approach the idea of crossing them even if we were playing outside with her without the collar. When she more recently became braver and visited the neighboring yard, we put the collar back on. She was terrified. Trembling and becoming completely paralyzed. It wasn't even turned on, but she would NOT move, much less go outside. We couldn't figure it out. And after a few attempts, with the same result, figured that when spring came, we would have to replace the fence or figure out what the issue was. In the meantime, we continued to let her out freely, because she rarely attempted to venture further than the limits she knew so well. BUT...she did attempt a few times and our neighbor would let us know she had been over for a visit. This was crossing yards, not the street. The street was not in the forefront of our minds, because she was in and out often, never really wanting to be away from us for too long, she stopped at the limits when running around and even when her favorite UPS man drove by. Ours is a residential street with the main traffic being a few people living in the area coming and going. Not a street to any main destination.

On Feb 2nd, Sadie and I were hanging in the backyard and I went in to get something. Was coming back to the door withing a 5minute period. I heard her yelping and when I opened the door there was blood everywhere. Sadies front left arm was "degloved" with everything pulled back but her bones. I thought she had found a trap or something (though I would hope noone has those kind of traps around their houses and yards!). Getting hit by a car just wasn't an option to me...there wasn't enough time, I didn't hear anything-a truck or barking or anything. Later, we searched and searched for answers in the yard, neighbors, culd-e-sac, etc. We found evidence in the middle of the street in the front of our house. Her fur and "stuff".  I rushed Sadie to the vet, not far from our house, and we were faced with the decision of amputation or euthanasia. I was home alone. I had 5min to call my husband while the vet called a special "orthopedic" surgeon. Sadie had lost a lot of blood and they were trying to control shock. Surgery couldn't wait.

So, here we are. We have been dealing with alot of self blame and guilt, knowing it was our  responsibilty to keep her safe and we didn't. We took an ignorant chance, never ever dreaming of anything like this. This site has helped me immensly with this part of the ordeal and I don't want to dwell on all the indescribable feelings my husband and I have. We must let that go and move forward. We are trying.

Currently, Sadie is one week post-op tonight. She is fighting a serious infection and it has been a roller coaster of decisions, tears, anxiety, regret, fear, hope, compassion, etc. I will not borrow trouble. Day by day we will do all we can. We will do right by her, starting here and now.