Old dogs can learn new tricks!
It’s been 3 weeks since amputation and I am here to tell you, there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. And, the light is so much brighter than what I had envisioned when we first brought Buddy home after surgery.
His fur is coming back and the scar is healing. He’s going for walks again although they are shorter for now. He’s sun bathing. (because the rain finally stopped) And he’s happy. And that’s the most important thing of all.
Happy Monday friends!
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.
Tuesday was a rough day. His appetite wasn’t that great but he did eat. The weather turned gloomy and had threatened thunder storms. I imagine, like most dogs, he gets really depressed when its rainy out and we have rain in the forecast all the way up to Monday. I decided to get him out back for a short bit while the weather was still cloudy. It started to sprinkle sometime after noon so I went out to fetch him. I was thankful that he got out for an hour. Instead of using the gate to get back into the house he decided he wanted to attempt the back deck stairs. He fumbled up the first step but made it up none the less. I’ll count that as the victory of the day! The rest of the day was spent with some anxiety and depression. I struggled with wether to give him a Xanax or not. By nightfall the weather wasn’t getting any better. The rain was becoming heavier with the potential for thunder. I could tell his uneasiness was increasing because he followed me from room to room. He never does that. He’s a pretty independent dog and rarely looks to us for comfort in that way. His safe place during storm’s is usually the TV room in the basement. He can’t make it down or up those stairs just yet so finding a temporary safe place is a bit of a problem. I tried to make him as comfortable as possible by closing all the curtains and I finally gave in and gave him half a Xanax before we went to bed.
Yesterday morning I found him underneath the dining room table looking pretty disheveled. He had the look of, who are you and how did I get here? So the Xanax must of worked. Score. His appetite still wasn’t that great but he did eat when I encouraged him by hand feeding him a bit. I got him out to pee a few times, in the misty rain, before I left for work. The rain had stopped a bit by the time I got home so I decided that maybe we could attempt a small walk. He saw me pick up his harness and immediately got up. I didn’t even have to say the “w” word to get him up and motivated! (Now I know if you are reading this you are obviously a dog owner and you know never to say the “w” word unless you mean it and you also know what the “w” word is.) Out the door we went. His new harness was a little to loose and I’ll adjust that but otherwise he looks pretty darn handsome in it. He decided he really wanted to go across the street and up a steep hill into a neighbors yard for his first adventure. He mastered that hill like he had just climbed Mt. Everest. He did his business and clambered back down to the street. Thats where the harness comes in pretty handy. The handle on the back was helpful in aiding his descent down. He decided he wanted to continue with his exploration by heading back to our small court. The only thing I don’t like about the new harness is that the leash attaches to the back and not the front so its hard to get him to turn when I don’t want him to go somewhere. He can be pretty bull headed about the direction he wants to go in. After some sniffing around and marking new spots we headed back into the house. Not bad for our first attempt at a walk! I handed him his new bone, that my husband had bought him the day before, and he sat very happily munching away, then took a nap.
It wasn’t raining before dinner so we decided to try and take him out for another walk. Steve (my awesome husband) had the brilliant idea of putting his new harness on and placing the old harness on top of it. The old harness has a loop up front for his leash which makes it much easier to control his sometimes stubborn, unwise choices in where he’s going to walk. It worked like a charm! He had a pretty successful mini walk down the street and back home! I gave him dinner but his appetite still isn’t that great. I’m going to try and not worry about it to much. He’s about 11 lbs less than what he used to be so maybe he wants less. It could be that he is finally on to me hiding his Tramadol in his food. I’m not sure what is going on. Maybe its weather related. I don’t know. Over all though, the day was excellent! Its been 17 days since surgery. It was almost like he was his old self again.
