Once Is An Accident. Twice... ?

Way back when Duncan was a tiny puppy, he had a Spinning Accident - he broke his leg while spinning in circles, possibly for tail-chasing reasons. He - and we - had a difficult few weeks dealing with splints, tramadol, metacam, x-rays, and other fun stuff, but he healed well and soon it was all in the past.

Was. It was in the past.

No, he didn't break any bones this time, thank goodness, but we have another spinning injury. Friday evening he was vehemently protesting Megan's departure for dinner with friends, and threw a spin or two into the performance. As usual, he settled down as soon as the door closed and all was quiet.

Too quiet. Suspiciously quiet. I went looking for him, and found him under Evan's bed in the basement. He came out from under the bed, but he just wasn't himself all evening. No chasing the cat, just a lick on the face (Jax was taken aback!) No asking for his evening walk. Not even a proper greeting when Dad came home. In other words, he was a perfectly behaved (but perfectly boring) dog. Not our boy at all!

A trip to the vet determined that he had pulled or twisted or strained his back. He's back on his old friends tramadol and metacam for a few days, with orders to rest. No running or jumping, and as few stairs as possible. The meds are easy; he loves them and wishes the doses were bigger. Even the resting hasn't been as difficult as we expected; he's been willing to stay put and nap - a sure sign he's still not feeling well - as long as we don't try to do anything interesting. But he's on the mend today, sneaking downstairs to check up on Jax, so he should be back to normal soon.

In other news, the deck is almost finished; just the last few boards and the edges to do. It would have been done by now if the rain had timed itself better! Needless to say, Duncan has been a great help:

Need help with that, Dad? 

How's a guy supposed to patrol the yard with all this in the way?

Needs a few more boards on this side...

The only thing he doesn't like is the power saw. But he's even coming around to tolerating it, since he discovered that it generates small hunks of cedar that he gets to play with:

Tasty, and it smells good too!