Every year we host a big New Years party. And every year, Shadow has the pleasure of spending the night at Gold Country Pet Resort (Sidenote: if you live in Amador County or anywhere near it, this is the ONLY place to board your pet. I’m pretty sure Shadow doesn’t want to come home because he has such a great time there!). I do this for a variety of reasons – there are people in and out of the house all night and I worry someone will let him out, he’ll get fed WAY too much food he shouldn’t eat, etc. Probably more peace of mind for me than anything.

This stay was no exception – he had a fantastic time and I picked him up at 5pm on New Years Day. It was dark by the time we got home, and I only pulled about halfway down the driveway because I still had some things in the garage to clean up before I was going to put my car in. I opened the back door of my car and unlocked Shadow’s crate. He jumped out like he normally does, but either tripped or was expecting to be on flat ground (instead of the slant of the driveway). He landed smack on his face. Like really hard. It actually scared me a little bit. He jumped up and shook it off, but I know how those sneaky labs can be, so I took him in to check him out. Teeth are all intact, nothing seemed to hurt to touch, but I did find a gigantic raspberry that was bleeding on his chin. Poor little fella!

I gave him a bath (he really did have a fun time at the kennel) and cleaned it up a bit. Here’s what it looks like today…

I feel so bad! At least it’s healing and nothing else was hurt! Poor Shadow!