Something the vet said...

When I was at the vet's yesterday, he said he got the fax Monday morning from the emergency room with details of Sam's injury. He was reading about the exposed blood vessels, and thought, "How on earth did he hurt himself so badly?"

Then he thought, "Oh, wait. It's Sam. That explains it."

The man knows his patients.

* * *

Sam scared the daylights out of me when I came home, this evening. He met me at the door, and he was standing on three feet, sore foot off the ground. My first thought: "What has he done now?" But I think the foot was just stiff. He'd probably been asleep and not using the foot, then woke up when he heard me come in and limped to the door to meet me. He quickly started walking around without limping.

Sam, no one likes a smart ass.

* * *

There now is a 3-foot long, 1.5-inch diameter piece of PVC pipe secured to each stair. The pipe is wedged and tied to the metal risers, blocking the gap where Sam's foot got caught. And since it's tied to the risers, the pipe won't roll forward from the gap and present a hazard to me or the dogs when we're going up or down the stairs. It's an ugly solution, but it'll do for now. It's a stopgap measure--literally and figuratively.