I thought I killed my dog yesterday.

It's Thanksgiving weekend, so I headed up to Squamish to have dinner at my sister's. I stopped in North Van to pick up my niece and her baby - they'd arrived from Alberta the night before, and were staying at her in-law's. It was nice having company for the drive, especially since we don't get a chance to see each other much anymore.

When we arrived at Mum's, Randi ran into the house to get rid of some of the Venti Iced Tea Lemonade she'd been drinking, so I took the baby out of his car seat and with him in one arm and my puppy in the other I walked toward the back gate. Just as I was reaching for the latch, Willy jumped out of my arms and landed with a sickening *splat* right on his side. He didn't move. I quickly sat Kaden on the driveway and carefully picked the dog up, worrying at the same time that I shouldn't, but not wanting the last thing he knew in this life to be cold wet pavement.

Randi picked Kaden up and we went into the house, where we checked the dog out. He held his head out at an awkward angle, and didn't move. Eventually we noticed he rolled his eyes a little, so I put my hand on his chest and was relieved to feel a heartbeat and breathing. I put him on the floor to see if he could move, and I don't know if I was relieved that he could or even more scared to see him drag himself in a circle, much like the hamster we used to have.

I think he must have winded himself, because about a half hour later, he was back to normal, but even a day later I can still hear the sound of him landing on the ground.


Dinner that night was great. My sister hosted this year, and everyone was there except my oldest brother's family and my kids. It's getting harder to gather everyone together at one time, so it's nice to have as many as we did. The food was great, the company even better.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, whether your dinner was last night, tonight or tomorrow. If you're alone, make yourself a special dinner anyway, and count your blessings to remind yourself of all the gifts you have in your life.