In Which Belle Cardigan Corgi Gets Cracked

Belle is due for a bit of pampering after earning that PAX2, don’t you think?

Actually, she’s due for a bit of pampering all along. After the partial paralyzation and recovery,  she’s permanently weak in her right hindquarter–it’s subtle, but it’s there.   She compensates–you’d likely never guess from watching her.

But in the process she often has little spasms, charlie horses, and inflammations.  Sometimes all at once.  And lots of times she pretends she’s not and there’s only a subtle change in her mood.  Mainly she just keeps trying.

Back when she was five and still on crate rest after the first flare of her disk disease, I was lucky enough to connect with a horse/dog massage therapist who periodically made the drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff.

The stupendous Sue was key to Belle’s initial recovery, her ongoing recovery, her return to agility, and my ability to manage her throughout.

(DuncanHorse also benefited greatly–as did Connery after the Giant Schnauzer attacked him–but that’s another story.)

During that time, I learned to do some basic work on all the kids, and I also took a doggy sports massage clinic (Flagstaff veterinarian Cindy DiFranco–gosh, she’s got her own DVD now!)  I wanted to be able to support the dogs–all of them–as best I could on my own.

But I don’t have the incredible, intuitive touch of the stupendous Sue, and I always counted on her to right the wrongs I couldn’t find.  Plus Belle loved her.  Connery loved her.  Duncan fell asleep on her (literally).

It may not surprise you that the first thing I did when learning we would be moving was to look for someone in Albuquerque who could approximate the same.

It also probably won’t surprise you that I wasn’t expecting to find someone equally stupendous–but it did surprise me when I couldn’t find anyone at all.  Rehab, yes; sports massage, yes.  All good people.  But not quite the thing for Belle.

But finally, I may have found something. For as of this past week, Belle has been cracked.

Chiropractic isn’t what I was looking for. I was wary of it, as I feel she’s a vulnerable little person, and truly  sensitive to being handled–she has reason to fear pain after what she’s been through, and it shuts her right down.  But I kept hearing good things about a local vet, and I really felt something was going on with Belle that expert hands should investigate, and well…

Sometimes you just take a chance.  So I did.

And Belle sure needed to be cracked.

It isn’t the same thing she had with the stupendous Sue; it’s not the same category of therapy at all.  But it’s a foundational support that will help keep her comfortable in ways that I can’t manage, while I keep looking for someone with a special intuition and a precision, delicate touch with myofascial massage.

Meanwhile, Miss Belle has been roaring around the house, so I think she’ll be getting some more cracking.  In the end, hers is the opinion that counts!