blog@cliffdweller

Yesterday, Bimbo promised me she'd be careful if I let her go outside and sun herself on the balcony. It's on the second floor, and I always have supervised her very closely when she's out there. But yesterday I got lax.

I was moving the window a/c unit from the bedroom to the front room and talking to her and playing with her the whole time. She was doing fine and seemed to be enjoying the sunlight. She'd be such a lizard if she weren't already a dog.

Then I heard a strange noise and realized she'd jumped off the balcony while I wasn't looking.

My heart in my throat, I raced downstairs to see if she was splayed out all over the pavement or impaled on some random yard equipment. To my utter amazement, she was standing at the bottom of the staircase that goes into the basement. There was a cut above her left eye and her nose was bloody, but that was it.

She let me pick her up and hug her and carry her back into the house, which is amazing in itself because lately she's been screaming whenever I try to pick her up. I brought her back upstairs and laid on the floor with her for about an hour.

It was an ?ºber-emotional moment.

She still seems dazed a bit, I'm not sure she's going to survive the week, but she doesn't seem to be in pain. It's more like she's really depressed. Maybe she didn't jump after a cat, maybe she just fell because she's losing control of her little old legs and shoulders and thighs.

Since the accident, she's been very docile. I've picked her up and carried her a lot. I've felt all over her body many times for broken stuff and haven't found any. She doesn't seem to have any internal bleeding or strange bruising. It's amazing.

Still she does seem to have aged quite a bit, so I don't think she's out of the woods yet.

I know one thing, she's never going out on that balcony again.