I should back up and start from the beginning. So Mason (our furry, four legged, fourth family member) arrived today. After several flights, quarantine, and who knows how many different handlers, he arrived safely at our front door. He as VERY happy to see us – wet doggy tongue-kisses for everyone. Vannah was as happy to see him as we were! He was happy to be here, but was pretty freaked out still. He did the common “sniff around” to get to know this new place. The delivery guys needed their leash back, so we took it off of him – and they went back to the van to get Mason’s crate for us. He seemed like he needed to go to the bathroom so I decided to let the poor guy out so he could relieve himself (36 hours in a crate… I’d have to go!!!)
Our back yard is walled-in – so I was just going to go out there with him off-leash. No problem, right? Our back porch is a few feet above the ground level – so we have a gate at the top of the steps (part of the Vannah-proofing). The porch has 3.5-4’ railing-walls around the rest of it. Clearly, I had to open the gate to let Mason into the yard. Next to the basement (~12-14’ below the back porch) is a small walk-out area (you can look down to it from the porch) that you can access from a door in the basement. There is a window from the main level that has a 1’ window-hang under it (over the basement walk out area).
Evidently, Mason REALLY had to poop, MUCH more than I would’ve guessed. He didn’t wait for me to open the gate, and instead took two steps and flat jumped over the porch wall. Except, he didn’t jump it down to the yard below – he jumped towards the basement, hit the window-hang, then fell down the 12ish feet to the basement walk-out area!!!! It happened so fast! I freaked out as it was happening and just kept yelling “No! NO!! NO!!!!” He landed on his back/side/butt-ish areas with the first dog-pain-yelp I’ve ever heard from him – and he may or may not have caught the wall on his way down. He continued to cry/yelp, Danielle and Savannah started screaming and crying once they seen Mason down on the ground in pain.
We ran to the basement door to get to him – struggling to figure out the lock on the door (I’d never opened this door as of yet)to get to him. In the maybe 30 seconds it took for me to get the door open, Mason had gotten to his feet, was clearly shaken and stunned, but didn’t seem to be in pain. He took a couple steps in, licked my face, then tucked his legs under himself and pooped on the basement floor. All 4 legs bent/moved correctly, he didn’t wince or yelp as we searched him for injury. The only evidence that anything had happened was a streak of blood under his mouth (I think he bit himself on impact, or he hit his face on the ledge on the way down).
Danielle stayed with him as I hurried back up to get the delivery guys to convince them to 1-help us find an emergency vet, and 2-drive us there (I’d use the typical “enough RMB (money) can get just about anything done” approach. Over the next few minutes of finding a vet, Mason’s stunned nature went away a bit as he searched around the basement, jumped up on the basement couch, licked Danielle and Savannah some more. We decided to wait a bit more and watch him close before deciding about the vet. I thanked the delivery guys for their help, and the vet info, and joined my family (dog included) in the basement.
Mason stayed a bit tentative, but loosened up over the next few minutes. He smelled awful (at least Danielle said he did) so we got him upstairs intending to give him a bath (he didn’t like the stairs at first, but he took them himself without indications of pain, I didn’t have to carry him). Upstairs he checked out all the rooms, went into our bedroom, and dropped another series of turds (did I mention he had to go?).
We got him in the tub and gave him bath – using the bath to check him out even closer than we already had. Other than a being a bit timid (that could’ve been from shock, travel, new place, or 12 other things) he didn’t seem injured; just one scrape on his rear leg (where I THINK he scraped along the wall while falling – which would’ve slowed him a bit). His pupils were reactive (no doggy concussion), and he still doesn’t react in pain to touches anywhere on him.
He has spent the rest of the afternoon close to me or Danielle. He didn’t even get too riled up when a repair-guy showed up to fix a couple broken handles in our kitchen (he went to him, sniffed him, then came back with me to the couch). So I was worried that something WAS still bothering him. But a few minutes later he was playing the customary fetch that he loves so much.
We’re still going to watch him closely for the next couple of days. No puke, no bloody urine as of yet. No poop yet either (since the original marathon pooping earlier) but we’ll look at that closely too. He took his customary place under Savannah at dinner, and other than seeming rather tired now he still seems ok.
Border Collies are so incredibly energetic and athletic. Today ours was his breed to a fault – and scared us half to death along the way. We can only hope there aren’t any injuries that are just taking time to develop symptoms! Clearly, Mason had angels around him today and we are very blessed for that!
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| This is the patio right out of the door.. the wall that you see straight head is what he jumped (about 4 ft tall) |
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| walking out the door, you open this gate to get to the fenced in yard.. |
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| This is the wall he jumped and hit the ledge.... |
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| The 12ft drop he took.... |
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| Here... we were worried about Savannah, never crossed our minds about Mason! (Look in the window, you can see his little head!)  |
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