Going back to the very first photo I used on this website, Rascal has a message.
It’s the holidays, and like any dog Rascal loved the various human delicacies. The season to sit below the dinner table and wait for the gift of table treats.
Thinking about Rascal’s passing and the holidays at the same time has inspired an idea.
How would Rascal want his will to be? Who would he want to receive his various possessions?
Some stuff is easy, his matching harness/collar/leash set will fit Ebbie and Roro wonderfully. His winter clothes are a size that will fit them as well.
However, Rascal understood the concept of Holiday Spirit. Because of this I’ve decided to ship his Ruffwear Webmaster Harness to anyone in the Tripawds community that needs a size small but perhaps can’t afford such pricey gear on top of medical expenses. It is practically brand new as Rascal was more of a nudist and preferred not to wear it.
This is where you come in, fellow Tripawd fans, I don’t know who would benefit from this. Spread the word, prompt me to post in a specific forum, help me get this harness to whomever may need it this winter. I don’t know if anyone would want this item, but if I can give it away in the spirit of the season, I would like to.
Because Rascal would never want his passing to affect the wonder of winter, I’m continuing to follow his lead.
Yesterday was immensely quiet and quite the reprieve. Rascal’s Farabloc blanket (a gift from my states away big brother) also finally arrived in the post! I didn’t put it right on him as I’ve read it disturbs some dogs, so I set it to one side on his mattress and let him do what he wanted. By evening he was laying with his stump buried into it and sleeping so soundly it was difficult to rouse him for dinner and medications. Today he’s been licking it and rolling on it; slime and stink dog baptism!
That being said, after laying on his stump for a few hours the bruising showed up just around that half of his incision. I’m not worried as it doesn’t look too bad and we’re having another smooth and quiet day. As long as he’s fed, medicated, and had his potty break my pup is pretty satisfied. We’ve also been keeping the house about twenty degrees cooler than the 90-100 temps outside. Everyone is more comfortable with aggressive air conditioning, covered windows, and oscillating fans.
The good news: The fluid appears to have disappeared after a day spent sleeping like a puppy!
The bad news: Rascal scratched at a scab along his incision while I was typing this up and has bled all over himself. Thank goodness for sterile gauze! He didn’t pull any stitches but grr~ what a mess. None of my socks will stay on his tiny feet either. Let the hawk watch begin.
I’ve just brought Rascal home from his surgery, and he’s out cold in his kennel with a white silk sheet over the bed to help keep him cool. So it’s time to talk about the day’s experiences and possibly post his very first post-op photos.
The surgeon said it went well, and monitored him for about four-five hours before releasing him to us this evening. His scapula has been left in because of his age and gait said the surgeon, I didn’t realize it was an option! He’s received two pain shots which has him flying very high. He sort of just dropped to sleep where I set him in his kennel. And I’ve been sent home with three oral prescriptions. Since he had his surgery today, he cannot have any food through tonight and only limited amounts of water. Just enough to whet his whistle! I honestly wonder if he’ll wake up before bedtime.
It’s definitely been a bit of a shock to see him with an incision where his leg was, but I must say looking at loads of pictures of dogs fresh from the same procedure has definitely helped me get over that shock enough to carry him home. My arms are so tired though! He’s a heavy boy and was dead-weight laying in my arms the entire drive home, the brief pit stop to see if he’d pee in the grass (he didn’t), and up into his soft bed.
I’ve got the living room set up so that I can sleep beside his kennel tonight and keep a very close watch, I’ve also prepared a movie marathon should it become a late night. The vet warned me there’s likely to be some pain tonight since it’s very much Day 0.
I think there should be a lot of questions I need to be asking, but my mind is wonderfully blank right now. I’m just so relieved my old man made it safely through another heavy dose of anesthesia. He’s resting comfortably for now so I’m going to count my blessings and enjoy this moment spent beside him.
I never realized how wrinkly his loose skin looked before now, the folds are out in the open with his hair shorn away!
I feel like showing off how well he looks with his S curved incision site, so if the fresh post-op photos aren’t for you; this post is done!
Sleepy Bubby
He was still attempting to hold his head up when this was taken, the fight was lost 0.2 seconds later when he dozed off fully. I can hear him snoring gently as I type.
Today feels like the right day to talk about this dude’s life so far, because it’s been a great one. Back when I was a kid, I was obsessed with a particular kids’ program on tv.
What’s the story Wishbone?
This naturally led me to hounding my parents relentlessly for a Wishbone of my own. My older brother had talked them into his own puppy two years earlier, and it was my turn! At that time we owned not only my brother’s 2 year old black lab mix, but also my mom’s older guy whom we thought was a st. bernard for ages before accepting we really weren’t sure.
Zac – Rascals AlphaKira – Rascals Teacher
These were the two dogs we had, and they’re the pack that Rascal spent his younger years with. He loved them, they loved him. I think they both played large roles in how Rascal developed, they taught him how to dog.
Indulgent puppy pose
Born chubby I said, but also a redhead once upon a time! I love this picture because it’s possibly one of the only remaining “baby” pictures I have left after a computer crash.
I ended up succeeding in my single minded pursuit of a jack russell terrier, and when I was nine years old I began reading newspaper ads, checking the internet, waiting for anything to come up about the breed I so desperately wanted. Low and behold a few months later I find some terrible news, a local pet shop is discounting a puppy because if he doesn’t sell within the week, he’ll be euthanized for being “too old” to remain in the shop. I remember thinking Rascal was sort of awkward and not so cute the very first time I saw him in one of those awful pet shop cages, but to hell with letting him die! So we then talked the cashier down another fifty bucks and for the first time in our lives, paid for a puppy.
He was named Rascal on the ride home, when we had no other good ideas and he pooped on the back seat with no remorse.
In the thirteen years since Rascal has joined my family both Zac and Kira have passed away from old age, Kira’s been gone for 2 years now, Zac for over 10. Some years after Zac went we rescued Rascal’s wife, the lovely black terrier Ebbie. We’re not sure what she is exactly, just that she was there on mom’s 50th birthday, cute and in a bad situation. So we brought her home!
Ebbie, the wife
What we didn’t know was in Ebbie’s future, was an accidental pregnancy when she went unsupervised with a family friend’s male dog. Whoops! (All pets of this household are spayed/neutered now!) This is how another dog ended up joining our pack, we found good homes for all her puppies except one, who my mom couldn’t resist keeping. Rascal’s step-kid, Kokoro. Ebbie and Roro aren’t my dogs, to be clear about it. They’re both my mom’s dogs and she spoils them rotten. But they’re both a part of Rascal’s life, which is the point of this post. He and Ebbie share dog beds, cuddle and are generally an adorable dog couple. We’ve always found it funny that Roro’s parents were both black terriers, but she came out sort of blond/ginger as if her mother was thinking of Rascal instead.
Kokoro, the kid
Both Ebbie and Roro submit to Rascal as alpha, he’s bigger, older, and more experienced in the ways of our farm. They’re our trio of attitude. But they’re not all either. Not by a long shot. I said earlier in this post that Kira has been an angel for coming up on 2 years. Kira was a great dog, and she led the pack after Zac; was Rascal’s hero, best friend and teacher. Our family was truly devastated by her loss, it’d been a long time since Zac had gone and we weren’t ready to lose her.
Kira – Begging champ
It was sudden and natural, no chance to even rush her to the vet. Fine at the beginning of the evening, gone by midnight. My dad is a sort of gruff man that is typically more frustrated with how much so many pets can cost than the sort to get emotionally attached, though he’s always dutifully gone broke on vet visits. He was the last one with Kira that night, and it hit him particularly hard in a way he wasn’t at all prepared for. Within two weeks, my 60 year old father was pulling the 6 year old boy, asking for a puppy to help heal his broken heart. Not only was dad heart broken, everyone in the house was, all the way down to the barn cats who usually practice staunch indifference. So within a few weeks of Kira passing over the rainbow bridge, we found ourselves with dad’s choice of puppy. A six week old little girl named Ila
Baby Ila
Baby Ila was a balm on the hearts of our pack. Rascal, who had lost his favorite animal companion, was so distracted by having a new baby under his wing that he wrapped up his mourning period and got to work! Ila did the most remarkable thing as well, we still had most of Kira’s things and Ila associated with Kira’s scent. She started sleeping on Kira’s bed, ate her dinner out of Kira’s bowl, and claimed all Kira’s toys. She even picked up on a few of Kira’s odd habits. We concluded these were the signs that Kira had vetted this pup and made sure she ended up on our doorstep. Ila is another mixed breed mutt, though arguably one of the most handsome dogs I’ve ever encountered. Trust dad to pick out a pretty one versus an easy to manage one. She is a high energy, high maintenance dog but I love her all the same. She’s Rascal’s newest protégé and despite growing to four times his size, she still defers to him as the Boss. It’s a pretty funny dynamic that the youngest is also the largest, but the others have learned to put up with her antics in the almost 2 years we’ve had her. While she is my dad’s dog, she tends to sleep with Rascal and I since he and I were the ones to teach and train her.
Sunbathing Pals
So there you have it. We’ve traveled through Rascal’s rise to the top of pack hierarchy, and met his dog family. Being the oldest with three fiesty girls around him keeps him playing, and keeps him young. He may be the boss man but he’s never above a good romp with any of them, be it indoors or outside. He still has a wonderful zest for life, and is a wonderful animal. I’ve seen him turn irate, cranky vet techs into smiling animal lovers just by visiting with him a few minutes. People will stop when he’s walking in town just to say hello because he’s got that charisma. This is a dog that is never lonely, a dog that has fun every day, and a dog that’s got everything to live for. If I seem confident that three legs is doable, it’s because this is the dog that can do anything.
