Margaret's Bench -- May 2008
Last December, in an effort to bring abundant
life into our home, David and I got a puppy. We named him Bingo.
If abundant life involves sleep deprivation and obsessive
interest in someone else’s bathroom habits, then Bingo brought
it, right away.
Christmas came and went in a blur of squeaky toys and missing
socks. Our well-established, comfortable, two-person routines
stretched and cracked under the strains of new parenthood.
We’d just grown used to sleeping through the night again,
and—after a string of days with no indoor “mistakes”—we were
thinking it might be safe to lay down the area rugs again, when
Bingo’s left elbow suddenly fractured during a walk in the
woods.
What? Just bounding around like he always did? How can a puppy
break a bone on an ordinary walk?
I’ll tell you how. Bingo is half poodle, half cocker spaniel.
During the dark days after the break, we learned that the bones
in Bingo’s elbow hadn’t ossified and grown together properly, a
congenital problem that shows up in some spaniel breeds. (Read
more about it.)
First sign of the problem: a slight limp that came and went
after we’d had Bingo for a few weeks. Though David and I both
noticed it at the time, the limp was so slight we didn’t even
mention it to each other. It didn't seem like a big deal.
Second sign: the break. Technically speaking, an “atraumatic
fracture of the left medial humeral condyle.”
In medical lingo, “atraumatic” means that it wasn’t caused by
outside trauma such as a horse kick or a car wreck. But make no
mistake, when Bingo’s left elbow suddenly snapped during a
peaceful walk in the woods with David, it was trauma-and-a-half
for both man and dog.
Okay, then. Ten days in a splint, followed by orthopedic
surgery, followed by weeks in a paw-to-shoulder padded bandage.
Weeks in which we had to keep our puppy physically quiet indoors
and always on a leash outdoors, allowed to walk—walk, not
run—only long enough to “do his duty,” as we like to call it in
our household.
To give the elbow enough time to heal completely, these
restrictions stayed in effect even after the bandage came off.
Even after it was obvious that Bingo felt great. Even after it
was perfectly, maddeningly obvious that Bingo found the leash
totally, totally unnecessary.
Finally, six weeks to the day after the fracture occurred, Bingo
was granted five minutes outside, off leash. During those five
minutes, I witnessed a moving picture of abundant life.
Bingo pouncing on a twig.
Bingo chasing a bird.
Bingo racing around for no reason beyond the compelling reason
of puppyhood.
David and I might be stumbling along behind, the words “Be
careful! Please be careful!” in our hearts, if not on our lips.
But Bingo was overflowing with new life, and without fear.
Today, all medical restrictions lifted, Bingo runs and plays
like any healthy young dog.
Photos of Bingo in the courtyard at St. Paul’s
near the end of
April taken by Kate Spear
The other evening, David and I sat and talked over the dramatic
stages of life with Bingo.
Those far-distant days when we were deciding to get a puppy and
planning how to go about it. The old world and old life. Can it
really be just five months since that world was ours?
The initial weeks of house-training and getting to know Bingo
(and each other) in unexpected and at times uneasy ways. A new
world, a new life.
The weeks of care and concern, vet bills, carrying Bingo up and
down the stairs, living with the possibility of re-injury at any
moment. New world, new life.
And now—can it really be just ten days that Bingo’s been
charging up and down the stairs, racing along the paths in the
woods, turning on a leaflet, playing with butterflies, chasing
his tail? Can this world and this life we’re living possibly be
so young and new?
In retrospect, each stage felt like forever while it lasted, and
like a dream after it had passed.
What next, dear God, what next in this abundant life?
-- Margaret
To read more about Bingo and how he got his name, see the
January ’08 Bench.
For more thoughts on abundant life, see the
Homily for the
Fourth Sunday of Easter Season.
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