Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

I'm a dog.  After Matt and Alicia abandoned me at the Columbia Pike Animal Hospital on Tuesday, Dr. Hall cut open my leg and wired it back together with Kevlar.  He sewed me back up, gave me a big dose of narcotics and antibiotics and locked me in a crate overnight to sleep it off.  I did NOT like.  Thankfully, the next day, Matt and Alicia came back for me!

When they came to get me I was all shakes and wiggles.  I could hardly keep myself still.  They usually like that, but this time they kept saying things like "Good girl. Just relax. Okay...Good girl...Lay down." On the plus side, since they were under strict orders to not let me lick or fuss with my bandages, Alicia let me lick her face instead!  She never lets me do that.  On the minus side, when I didn't listen, they put on the "cone of shame."

Trying to get to my bandages.

Decked out in my Ecollar for the ride home.

Dr. Hall said that I bled a lot during surgery, because I'm such a muscular dog.  When Matt told him I'd lost a lot of my muscle due to the injury, the doc was impressed.  I had torn my cruciate ligament all the way through and also my meniscus.  There was no way I should have been able to walk as well as I had been, but mind over matter, right?  Those squirrels needed to be chased and those dogs needed to be played with.  I had to fulfill my end of the bargain.

When I got out of the car at home, the first thing I did was pee.  I peed for a whole minute.  Seriously.  I was saving it up.  I am a well-trained puppy, and I know better than to go to the bathroom inside, so I held it from Tuesday morning at 8am until Wednesday night at 8pm. 36 hours.  Thank goodness I'm on antibiotics, or that could've caused a urinary infection.

Moving around with the bandages was challenging.  I walked kind of like a peg-leg pirate.  I was okay with that, though.  What I didn't like was that I had to wear the "cone of shame."  It is really hard to get comfortable with a peg leg and a cone of shame.  Even heavily medicated, I just couldn't sleep.  Thankfully, Matt slept on the couch next to my bed, and helped me when I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Settled in on my bed.

Asleep and snuggled in a blankie.
I love my new bed! It's a Serta!

Finally! A nap without a cone!

Matt and Alicia have been really wonderful about almost everything.  They keep giving me peanut butter by the spoonful.  They think I don't realize my medication is inside, but I do.  But why swallow medication on its own when you can get it wrapped in peanut butter? And even though they keep guiding my head away from my sutures, they have been letting me lick their faces and carrying me up and down stairs and out to the lawn so I can do my business.

Living the peg-leg life.

This afternoon we went back to see Dr. Hall and I was so excited.  I was sleeping in the car, but jumped up and tried to get into the vet's office as soon as possible when the car turned off.  Dr. Hall took off my bandages and had the vet tech put me down on the ground to see how much weight I'd put on my leg.  I just started walking around like it was no big deal.  All the doc could say was "Now, now that...that's unusual" and then he warned Matt and Alicia that even though my spirits are high and I want to walk, I needed to rest and relax.

Waiting for Dr. Hall, so he can remove my bandages.

So now I'm home and recuperating.  I keep trying to lick my sutures and Alicia keeps stopping me.  I also keep trying to walk around and they keep making me lay down. I. DON'T. LIKE! I'm a puppy!  I want to do what I want to do.  I mean, look at me!  I'm totally healed!

My "good" side.

DO NOT SCROLL DOWN UNLESS YOU ARE OKAY WITH BRUISED AND STITCHED PUPS!


SERIOUSLY, IT LOOKS GROSS!


DESPITE HOW BAD IT LOOKS, I FEEL GREAT!


BUT IT DOES LOOK GROSS!


WARNING: My leg looks awful, but it's just healing.  If you don't like the look of lot of bruises and stitches, just stop reading now and consider this post finished.  But, if you want to see my leg, read on.

Bandages off.  Ecollar removed. Time to sleep.

Bruised and battered, but on the road to recovery.

I'll keep you updated as to how my healing goes!