Wants and Knees

Ca-ching! That was yesterday's sound effect. After 4 hours in the dentist chair (crown) and $1200 later I got the "great" news about the dog. Her $800 worth of x-rays revealed she needs a total overhaul in her knee. It seems she's torn two ligaments and the only way to fix it is to break her knee, detach and then reattach the ligaments. That'll cost about $3500 and she'll have to be crated for 4 weeks then go through 3 months of rehab. Put aside that we don't have $3500 to spend on me, let alone the dog, 4 weeks in a crate will quite literally kill her. She can't sit still for 5 minutes; put her in a box for 4 weeks and she's going to go insane. The doctor said we don't have to do anything now, there's no difference between an immediate reaction and waiting until the ligs tear off completely. So he put her on anti-inflammatory meds (ca-ching) and said she needs to loose about 8lbs. The irony is we've been trying to help her lose weight by taking her running with us and that's how she hurt the damn knee in the first place. I've no idea how we're supposed to slim her down now. She was moving around pretty good on it last night (doc says it only gets aggravated by over use) so we're just going to limit her activity and see what happens. It's a big dilemma. I'm not sure what's worse for her: 4 weeks in a box or the next 10 years without being able to chase a ball. So that's where we're at with our quadruped child. Just trying to make dollars and sense of everything. By the way, photo is from her last "trauma" when she ripped off her dew claw playing ball last year.