Bad Mommie

Last week Ollie and Cosmo went for a walk and game of fetch. We usually play on the grassy area near our home, but with two dogs I wasn't sure how Cosmo would behave with out a fenced-in area. Instead, we met up with a neighboring dog, named Maveric(golden doodle) and headed to the back of an abandoned warehouse that had lots of room to safely roam. Or at least I thought it was safe.
Ollie has gone to this area many times to play with other neighborhood dogs. Fetch on the hard gravel wasn't too much of a problem, but I did notice his paws would become inflamed when we got home. Doc warned me it was probably not a good idea to continue this, but Ollie always seem to be having so much fun!This occurrence was not much fun at the end. After twenty minutes of fetch, I noticed Ollie limping. He didn't dart off to chase the ball any more. Seeing that he was tired, I began to head home and take the dogs back. We live about three blocks from our home, so it was still quite a trek back. While walking back, Ollie darts onto the soft grassy area. Still stumbling and then all of a sudden, sat down. Would not move!
I kept pulling, not know what was wrong? Did he break his leg? Did he hurt himself? or was he just lazy and wanted to rest? I really got concerned because he has NEVER done this. He's sat down after a good game of fetch, but his legs never shook or in a sense collapsed. It was frightening. I sat down and examined his paws. They were torn up! Poor thing! The pads on his feet were separated from his foot. Like when you get blisters on your hands from playing on the monkey bars too much. Three out of his four paws were torn like this. Poor Ollie was injured, but he still was brave enough to not whimper or whine. We ended up sitting on the corner of this apartment complex while I called my brother to come pick us up. We were still a couple blocks from home, and there was no way I would make Ollie walk. Plus, there was no way I was lifting him up since he was a hefty 70 lbs. Luckily I got a hold of Billy and was able to get a ride home. Ollie was out of commission several days after that. He certainly was not himself and had difficulty walking. David wasn't too pleased with my decision to run Ollie on the hard concrete, but was still helpful in nursing Old Ollie back to health.