The Big Pupdate

Today is the second anniversary of Sarge’s Accident, so I thought I’d take a moment to catch his fans up on his progress. (If you’re not familiar with the story of his accident and have a fairly strong stomach, you can read this thread and catch up on the drama.)

While everything ended up well with Sarge, the odds didn’t look good at first. We were absolutely terrified that we’d lose him. (There’s a weird rush of thoughts that comes in a crisis. I remember thinking, well, at least if he dies it’ll happen on the twenty-SECOND night of September, so my family won’t feel forever taunted by an Earth Wind and Fire hit.)

Luckily, we had pet insurance, so we could just focus on getting him better and not have to worry about paying for what seemed like a longshot care option. (Seriously, if you have a pet and don’t have insurance, correct that oversight immediately. We had a $35/month plan with Healthy Paws that covered most of a five-figure bill. Do it.)

Sarge pulled through thanks to the great care and hard work of the staff at Princeton Animal Hospital and later at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, where he received treatment for his injuries and did some physical therapy.

A few days after the accident, we got him back home.

The bandages on his stomach and chest were off, but his legs and paws — which of course had seen the worst of the accident — were still bandaged, and he wasn’t able to get around much at all.

Feeding could be interesting, but the doctors said he needed protein, which was all the excuse I needed to spoil him with eggs, ham, sausage, whatever.

For the next two months, my wife and I spent turns sleeping on the floor next to him in our bedroom. We put a spare kids’ mattress on the floor, surrounded it and Sarge’s bed with a gate so he didn’t wander off, and slept and stood guard for when he had to go pee at night.

And that process was an adventure — we had to carry him downstairs in the bed, because he couldn’t walk alone and holding him would hurt; we then had to wrap each leg with something to keep it dry (tried Saran Wrap, but eventually realized baggies and rubber bands worked best); we had to monitor him to be sure he didn’t lose a baggie or shake off the collar; then unwrap him, put him in the bed and carry him back upstairs, and climb into the mini zoo in our room. It was like having to care for a newborn baby again, but in our late 40s.

Miraculously, Sarge recovered to a considerable degree. He’s still got a lot of scarring, though the chest one is actually sort of cool looking, as it reminds me of the stitching on a football. While his paws healed, his left front leg is probably only 75% back and he often favors the other leg.

If you’d told me that would be our best option two years ago, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat. We really got lucky, and that luck depended entirely on the kindness of strangers — the ones who saw and saved him from the accident, the ones who cared for him in the ER and helped him get better later on, and honestly, all of you on social media too. When I told my kids that Sarge was trending on Twitter, they seemed suddenly relieved. To a couple of TikTok teens, it meant the world was paying attention to their personal problem and that as a result it was going to be all right.

Thanks to all that love and care, Sarge’s recovery was remarkably quick. He had the bandages off within a month or so. Still had the collar on for a while, but at least on Halloween he got to switch it out for avocado toast:

Kiss your pets for me, but make sure they’ve got a car seat belt and pet insurance too.