Tragedy Strikes when you least expect it

Our oldest dog, an American Eskimo slipped down the steps on his way out to do his business last night about 3am. He is 16 and can hardly hear, or see but still he has managed those steps fairly well over the years (it is a spiral set down from our deck to the back yard, about 15 feet long)
The other two dogs run up and down these stairs in all weather with nary a problem, but they are much closer to the ground and if they slip its like a sled rids down a hill for them.

Kodiak however is taller and somehow managed to shatter his front right leg, radius and ulna both. It is a really nasty looking X-Ray.

Where I grew up and with pretty much everyone I was raised with, this would mean putting the dog down. (I mean he is 16, and suffering from a number of dog ailments and on more pills than my grandma).

But here in the city C. will be with him during the surgery tomorrow and will have to nurse him back to health for what will be a protracted period. The Surgeons fee alone is about $3k plus a weekend in the ER plus a day or two for recovering in the Animal Hospital plus the cost of X-Rays and the emergency room 3am arrival and the pain meds and other assorted shots...all told this will hit $6k easy. Fun fun fun. Just in time for Jingle Bells. The real pain is that now someone will have to put him on a leash and walk him out front several times a day (the meds he is on means he urinates like a firehose all day long).

Long story short, if Algore would get off his ass and get that global warming here, we wouldn't have had icy steps!