My court reporter is one of those inspirational people who always has great compassion and insight from having walked through hell herself. She’s also goofy and will make you feel good cuz she laughs at any joke you crack, no matter how lame you really are. She comes back to work tomorrow after being out the past 2 weeks. All the temporary relief reporters just made us miss her more.

She had taken the last two weeks off to take care of Coby, her white labrador retriever, who had leg surgery. I guess labs have thin leg bones and it’s common for big happy dogs to bounce their way into injury. She’d called two days after the surgery to let us know how things were going. The poor dog didn’t sleep well the first night due to all the pain. She said that aside from a couple of 45-minute intervals when he’d passed out, Coby cried and whimpered and shivered the whole night from pain. The pain pills the doctor gave my reporter to take home did nothing; she said she probably gave him three days’ worth in one night and he never got comfortable. No one slept those first few nights. She even called an emergency 24-hour vet, who couldn’t do anything in the middle of the night because they’re not mobile and could only give Coby a pain reliever shot if she brought him in, but a 90-pound dog who’s not mobile is not easy to carry around. The bandage was seeping blood still. With her daughters’ help, my reporter managed to get Coby into her SUV the next evening and drove him to his regular vet, who came out to the car and gave him a morphine shot. He slept better that second night. But he wasn’t able to go to the bathroom, as every time he leaned back on his haunches to go, the pain in his injured back leg made him leap back forward whimpering.

I can’t wait to see how Coby’s doing when we finally get our reporter back tomorrow. Here are some dog sayings in honor of Coby:

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.
-Anonymous

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
-Will Rogers

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.
-Josh Billings

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.
-Andy Rooney

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It’s the best deal man has ever made.
-M. Acklam

Anybody who doesn’t know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.
-Franklin P. Jones

If your dog is fat, you aren’t getting enough exercise.
-Unknown

My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That’s almost $21.00 in dog money.
-Joe Weinstein

Ever consider what our dogs must think of us? I mean, here we come from a grocery with the most amazing haul, chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we’re the greatest hunters on earth!
-Anne Tyler

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
-Roger Caras