First night home was a good one. I set up a dog bed surrounded by bath mats next to our bed, which is down low enough I can hang my arm over and scratch his ears.
We also figured out how to get a tshirt on him… though this first one is a bit baggy. When it is time to change it, I will do a better job with the next one. He’s not too leaky – just a few drops. So the sutures are holding well. There is some fluid buildup, so we will do some warm compresses this morning to get that circulation flowing around and try to reduce the poochiness of the incision site.
He only had to wake me once last night – which is brilliant, we were expecting to be up every couple of hours. The reason made me giggle a bit once I figured it out. He didn’t hurt. He didn’t need to pee. He was stuck. He told me with little tiny whines of “mom?” “mom?” “mom?” until I was awake and on the floor with him in the dark. Once I ran my hand down his back, I figured it out. He had rolled off the dog bed and wedged himself between his bed and my bed. His good side was down and he couldn’t shift his balance back up onto the bed. He was stuck.
After I giggled with him, I reached down his back and scooted his booty back onto the bed and then slid his shoulder further from the edge of the dog bed. Once he was centered again, he stretched back out and slept until almost 9. At one point, he did get up, turn around and lay back down. That is the first time I saw him get up without us encouraging him.
He ate most of his breakfast, I’m not too worried he didn’t eat it all. He had just come in from the outside where we poo-ed. Which is a huge milestone for us. (Treats for everyone?) He was probably tired from standing and needed to take a break.
Our challenge today is to either convince him to stay on the carpet runners or create a broader network of bathmats in the places he wants to lay down. His biggest struggle by far is our slippery concrete floor. It is cool on his belly, but he can’t get up without help. Instead, I’m getting the little whines “mom?” “mom?” “mom?”…. my response is “figure it out buddy, use your dog brain” as I run to get another bathmat.
I’m so glad to hear to hear Sam is doing so well. We can learn a lot from his resilience.