My dad took a hard fall this morning. He is 92 years old and in pretty good shape for his age. He does use a wheelchair, but he is able to get up, dress, groom, and come to the table for his coffee and oatmeal each morning. This morning we were not that fortunate.
My husband and I were visiting and enjoying our coffee, waiting for dad to rise and come in before I started cooking the oatmeal. Our little girl was curled up in the blanket my husband had thrown across his lap. Matanya suddenly jumped up and barked. She must have heard Daddy falling before we heard the crash and the instant howl of pain.
This is not the first time Matanya has alerted us to mishaps. During the night hours while we have been sleeping, she has heard my dad fall. If not for her bark, we may have slept through it and Dad could have been down for hours before we would discover him. It just happened that we were aware of the fall this morning.
Dad took a hard fall this time. As he was attempting to sit into his wheelchair, he had misjudged his placement. He went down, skimming the seat along his back. He hit his left elbow on some part of the wheelchair and skinned his elbow and a one inch gash down his arm. It was bleeding freely. When we got it cleaned up, it turned out to be a shallow cut, but it tore his tender skin. It will be ok if we keep it cleaned and bandaged.
The worst part of this fall was that the metal foot stand gouged him in the left side. He was in quite a bit of pain from that, but thankfully, no ribs seem to be broken. At this point, no bruise is showing, and he can breathe and allow us to feel for injuries. Of course, his bottom is going to be sore, too.
He just wanted us to put him back to bed, so we are peeking in on him from time to time. We are very fortunate. Things could have been worse. He is going to be very sore for a couple of days.
Now, back to Matanya. We rescued Matanya from the side of the road. She was cute as could be and had the sweetest personality. We put "Found Dog" notices in the newspaper, facebook, animal shelters, and convenience store bulletin boards. We only mentioned that we had found a small young dog. We did not go into detail with a description because we wanted a caller to describe her to us. We only got one response from someone who was looking for his MALE dog. Of course, Matanya was not his male dog. I hope the guy found his dog.
We have had Matanya for about five years now. She was around two when we found her. She has been such a wonderful addition to our family. Everyone who comes to visit falls in love with her, and she loves them back. I have heard so many stories of how a person who rescues a dog says really the dog rescued them. That old saying is so true in our family. Matanya did the rescuing this morning. Luckily we heard the crash, too, but if it had happened just an hour earlier, she may have been dad's first line of defense.
This picture is our sweet little girl in her sweater. It is cold here today, low 40's with a north wind causing quite a chill. The picture was taken with a little Canon Sure Shot Elph 115.
