January 23, 2010

Today I want to make known my gratitude for my daughter's health. There was a little mishap at the dog park today and she got some pretty nasty scratches. Nothing major, but I think it could have been worse.

Here's the backstory. There was a puppy playdate today organized through the mommy's group that I'm a part of. We were really late because of some errands that needed to be attended to, but that's neither here nor there. Well, we see our friends walking away from the dog park as we're walking towards it. We obviously stop to chit chat, and I noticed our friend's son has a bunch of scratches on his face. I asked if he and his sister had been play fighting, and he told me that it was from one of the dogs inside the park whose owner wasn't really paying attention to. So, now I'm on edge about the energy of all the dogs in the park. We say our goodbyes and start heading to the park again. We notice there are probably 50-60 dogs inside the park. Everything is fine for the first few minutes. I've still got my sunglasses on and I felt the need to take them off to see Ellie and our dogs a little better. There was a lot of "pecking" among the dogs and that type of energy typically makes Koda more fearful and Inga more protective and agressive. Well, Ellie was playing around one of the dog tunnels and she was no more than a foot and a half away from me when two little-ish dogs came running up full speed behind her and ran right into her. The impact sent her flying head over heals and she landed right on her face, right cheek actually, onto the mulch. I've honestly never heard her scream like that before in my life.

I'm sure part of the scream was from fear, but after getting all the dirt off her face I could see that she had some pretty nasty scratches covering the majority of her cheek. She cried for a good while, which is unlike her, so I knew it was still affecting her. We got her cleaned up as best we could, took the dogs home, then took Ellie out for dinner. Once home from dinner, while we were playing, I noticed that she also had a bunch of scratches, and one particularly deep one on her chest and abdominal, which I'm assuming were from the fall.

I'm very grateful that the only things that really happened were that she got some "battle wounds" and scared. So many worse things could have happened. She could've broken an limb, or landed on her head wrong, or the dogs could have hit her spine, or she could've landed on an upright stick... All things were unlikely, but the horrible possibilities are there. I really am grateful that nothing serious happened. She is my whole world and just seeing her in the fear and pain she was in briefly at the park was breaking my heart. It wasn't something that a mommy's kiss could fix.

So, thank you God for protecting and watching out for my little girl. Not just today, but every day. It's because of your will that she is as strong and vigilant as she is, and I thank you.

"The greatest wealth is health." ~Virgil

Good night.