Victor Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Harry watched me, then asked if the paws were comfortable, and when I told him they were he said that he would return the next weekend to check that there was no chafing or soreness. “Keep on them as much as you can,” he said,” and so build balance and the start of muscle control. It will be a slow job.” And with that he left us.

Colin meanwhile watched with amazement to see how mobile these new feet made me, and then he opened the door that led into the garden. I stumbled after him, wondering why he was going outside, then it struck me that I was outside under my own stem for the first time in all the long months since the accident. I could feel the breeze on my skin, and however unskilfully I could walk.

Colin led me to one of the many outhouses. “I spoke to the lawyer and got some money for us so that I could give you a surprise.” The room was fitted out as a gym with a treadmill and a range of exercise machines.

“There are one or two you can use, especially the treadmill which you must use every day, but I took the liberty of getting some that I can use as well – really a standard gym with one or two adaptations. I thought it would be good for us to work out together.”

And so began a new way of life. At first just a few minutes at a time on the treadmill, then longer and longer whilst Colin worked out on other machines. The treadmill controls were set at a level which I could reach but Colin had fitted an override above my level so that if he thought I was being lazy he could step things up. I soon learned to jump off if he did this, even though I knew he was doing it for my own good, but he found a way around that.

Harry meanwhile had been back many times to make sure that all was well, and after a few visits he started to join us in the gym. The gym and the treadmill were his idea, and so, I think, were .the high level controls. I began to think that he and Colin were a team.

Naturally there were other changes that had to take place. At meal times I could no longer use the artificial hands so Colin had to feed me, a procedure which humiliated me and wasted time for him. I had an idea.

“Col, Labby manages to eat his dinner with no hands. Can we try and see if I can do the same, Cut my dinner into bite-size pieces and put them in a dish for me. Let’s see if I can manage with lips and tongue.”

At first it seemed awkward and was certainly messy, but I learned how to do it with minimal mess, though I had to sit up frequently or I got terrible indigestion. Soon though it came to seem natural to have our meals together, Colin at the table and me on the floor with Labby.

I haven’t so far mentioned Labby’s reaction to all these changes. He had known me as the master in the chair and was very puzzled when I became master on the floor, but when I got my new feet and began to move around as he did, the relationship changed and I became companion rather than master. I was still his Alpha male, but I think he saw me as a fellow dog rather than a human master, and as I became more mobile and was able to run and play with him in the garden we became in some ways like brother pups. This was even more marked when I started to have my meals on the floor,