After running in his first flyball tournament with the Birmingham Bandits in October of 1999 at the St. Jude’s Showcase of Dogs in Memphis, there was no doubt that Jack and I had been bitten by the flyball bug!
Only a few months later, in December of 1999, Jack was attacked by a neighbor’s dog and received a traumatic leg injury. His left rear leg was nearly torn off, only held on by one ligament and one blood vessel. The outlook was bleak, but fortunately for Jack there was a Board Certified Orthopedic Specialist in town. Since I worked for a veterinarian, I knew how bad this injury was and felt sure that he would loose his leg and not be able to play flyball again. Dr. Milton, the orthopedic specialist was optimistic, but reminded me of the “worst case scenario.” Jack went into surgery and had two pins place and came home two days later. Making a long story short, both pins broke, and again I felt sure there would be an amputation. Dr. Milton on the other hand wanted to try to place a plate and screws. It was a long road to recovery, numerous bandage changes, x-rays, bleeding ulcers from a JRT spending 6 months in a crate 23 ½ hours a day!
The Birmingham Bandits ran their next tournament in North Carolina, in March and Jack was on everyone’s mind, all my teammates wore pictures of Jack in his huge cast, during the tournament. It meant a lot to me to have people who loved dogs supporting me and my dog, but it was not the same being there without my dog.
After our 6-month recovery, Dr. Milton released Jack to return to normal activity. I had to get a definition of normal activity for a JRT! I asked Dr. Milton about flyball and he simply stated that he would be twice as likely to get hurt at home running in the back yard as on a padded flyball course! I was thrilled. We began swimming Jack two times a day to build muscle.
After moving from Birmingham to Houston, (all the Bandits were jealous that I was moving to the Mecca of flyball), I became affiliated with the Mike Smith and the High Voltage group. They were fabulous and welcomed me with open arms. After receiving his XXX I was never really focused on titles and was surprised by most of them. I just enjoyed running my dog and he enjoyed running. You can’t even speak with words at my house, you have to spell them!
Now nearly 8 years later, for Jack to receive his Onxy means more to me than I can put into words. This award was a long to in coming but, I think that makes it even sweeter. Thanks to all of those who I raced against and especially to my teammates, back home in Alabama and here with the Texas Twisters, I couldn’t have done it without you guys!!
