Stairs and more rain

Thursday was another rainy day and more moping around the house. He’s still eating a wee bit less BUT he is eating. Thanks to everyone for your advice! I finally wizened up and stopped hiding Tramadol in his food. That seems to help. Sometime before dinner my son and I thought we should  try and take him out to do a potty break since he hadn’t gone all day. Buddy decided he should go for a walk. (Shaking my head.) This dog!!  So we trudged down the street a bit in the sloppy rain. After a bit of exploring and finding a perfect spot to do his business, we trudged back.  (I sometimes wonder what goes through a dogs head when they are scoping out places to poop… Nope. That smells weird. Nope. Not enough leaves and stuff. Nope. Sniff…sniff… ARG!!!! Oh the agony of finding the perfect spot to poop!) We dried him off when we got back inside and off he went to chew on his bone. Sometime later that night I heard the jingle of his dog collar and a thump. The basement. Oh my God. Someone left the basement door open! I ran down the steps and there he was. Unharmed (THANK GOD) but spilled out all over the place and shaking. (This dog!!) We didn’t fuss at him and tried to not act worried. We checked him over him out and helped him back up the stairs. If  there wasn’t such a sharp curve at the end of the first set of stairs, he’d have made it all the way down there all by himself. He was probably going down so fast that he tumbled head on into the wall at the bottom and couldn’t turn to go down the rest of the stairs. Turning and curves are not his strength. He is getting better at pivoting but not at a high rates of speed! Oh my goodness. (This dog!)

Friday, Steve and I took him out for a mini walk again before dinner. He thinks he can go for the walks that he used to go on but when we make him turn around to go back he starts to tire. So we limit him. Maybe longer walks will be in his future. We’ll see. Honestly, I  didn’t know if walks would ever happen again. I’m amazed that he can even get out the door at almost 3 weeks! He kept nosing around the basement door again. He loves  the basement. Its quiet and fully carpeted. He and Alex (my youngest) will hang out down there while Alex is playing video games. Theres also a stinky old couch down there that Buddy claimed for himself a long time ago. We put his harness on him and decided to let him try the stairs with Steve hanging on to him and me at the back. As soon as we reached the bottom he trotted straight over and onto his couch. The look on his face! Oh my goodness! Priceless! He was so happy that we decide to let him spend the night down there. We gated the stairs off though so that he wouldn’t try and go up them by himself. This dog!

He’s been having such great days with some roughness but mostly they are good. Sometimes there is a darkness of guilt/doubt that will haunt me. Was this the right thing to do? We wanted so badly to do the right thing. What if we were wrong? I will not lie. The first week was wicked hard. But you get through it because you have to and because we choose this for him. The second week was hard but it did get easier. I hold my breath everyday but as each day passes my breathing gets a little easier. Buddy’s will power and strength are the very reason we thought he could handle amputation despite his age. And each day that goes by I ease into thinking, maybe we were right. He’s pretty darn awesome.