Precious Paws

I walked Lily to Precious Blood Cemetery today. The mild weather has brought out all the smells, and I could see she was excited, and eager to run, especially since yesterday we missed out on our big walk. I decided to continue to Turbesi Park so she could have her run. When we got into the fenced-in baseball field she tucked her tail down and bolted like a rocket, sprinting across the icy slushy snow. She ran and ran. It was rewarding to see her so happy to run.

I noticed a red spot in one of her paw prints, and I tried to corral her to check her paws but she kept running. She stopped to lick something disgusting in the leaves along the fence and ran off as I approached. Then I saw a splotch of bright red blood about the size of a quarter in the paw print along the fence. I panicked. She must have sliced herself on the ice. I kept calling and following her, looking down at her paw prints and seeing tiny dots of blood. When I finally caught up to her I examined her paws. Her front left paw pad had been punctured. I felt around to see if I could gauge the size of it, getting blood on my fingers. I wiped my hands on the snow - I felt like I was at a crime scene. It looked like a small cut, though. I thought if we were lucky and careful maybe it would clot on the long walk home, and thankfully that is exactly what happened.