Friday!

In my original plan Dogger would be nine weeks out from surgery number one and a week out from surgery number two. I was very optimistic. This was then:

 

And this is now

  

Okay, granted, its hard to make any comparisons between those pictures because they aren't really alike in anyway, but she really hates being in the box and I couldn't do it to her just for a picture. But look! she's clearly less bald! 

I don't think I would do the second surgery right now even if I did have the several hundred dollars sitting around. I don't think Dogger or her new knee is anywhere ready to do it all again on the other side and I'm not sure the surgeon wants to do the other one either. He lurves her, but she's been one headache after another for him ( and me! and Dogger!) and I doubt he's wanting to go back down that road with her again so soon. I do want that surgery for her though, I want her to be whole again. Within the year.

But. Living in the now, Dogger is doing much better. She walks on all fours most of the time and the wound is closed (Thank you baby Jesus!) so she isn't wearing the E-collar anymore (YAY!) , I do wish that I had known that she was going to be wearing it for so long because I would have definitely invested the $20 in getting her a nicer one. It was like living with a take home version of the Very Large Array. The upside to that thing was that I got much better radio reception that I have ever gotten in the house before. All I had to do was position her near the radio and it was Hello Tierra Del Fuego!

She does still hop more than I would like and she resists sitting on command  which I don't really understand because that was a command she always could follow. She also avoids standing for long periods and seems to generally be less energetic than she was before the surgery.On the upside though, she is so much more lively than she was in the first few weeks after the procedure and while she is still on antibiotics and she's off all pain meds .

She's getting very tired of her post surgical routine. She's either in her room or in her crate. I'm leery of letting her wander the house because it's a mind field of slippery floors and demon possessed throw rugs that would love to trip her up. I am experimenting with walking around the house with her leashed. It sounds like I'm being too careful, but I read a yahoo group all about dogs with orthopedic problems and I have learned that the average house is a death trap for our dogs  in these first few months after their surgeries when their newly knitted bones are so fragile... I may get the crate out of my living room before I go on vacation. In August.