Pictures! – Mischief Managed

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Hey Tripawds! It’s been a while.

Just felt like saying hello, and giving a quick low-down on how Rascal is doing as we approach 2 months post-op. For the most part, he’s doing wonderfully. He’s getting quicker with moving around and his belly is more loose skin than ever with his carefully measured diet. He’s still a rolly-polly but I think he’s lovable anyway!

His bald area surrounding his scar has finally got a good scraggly coat of fur coming in, though being the dead of summer I imagine it’ll continue to look sparse until colder weather comes along.

The thing I need to talk about though is a minor issue with his eye, and an upcoming trip for his human. I’m going out of town in 9 days to visit my brother and take a short vacation before the school term starts, and I’ll be away from my boy for 8 days. This was already sort of disconcerting for me, since I am virtually always around save for maybe a few hours here and there. I know when Rascal is thirsty, I know when he needs a trip outside, I know when he just wants help getting down from the sofa since he’s a lazy thing that can jump down, but much prefers a quick lift. I also notice issues with his general health faster than anyone else, not even the tiny marble of scar tissue near his amputation site escaped my radar.

Enter a bloody eye last Friday night. Cue freaking out and calls to the vet by Saturday morning. Told to watch the eye in question for 24 hours, and if it doesn’t bleed again it should be fine. It didn’t, we went about our business. Then yesterday morning arrived, along with a green discharge and a swollen eye socket. Cue more freaking out and a rushed visit to the vet!

Just when Rascal thought he wouldn’t have to keep going there!

I was so worried about big eye problems that it was a huge relief when my vet explained the source of the blood and gross discharge was probably the skin tag he has on his upper eyelid. He’s had it for years with no issue, but the vet suggested he probably scratched it while itching his face and started off the irritation and blood which then led to a minor infection over the weekend. His actual eye is fine, it’s just been the avenue for drainage. 20 bucks of antibiotic eye-goo and some rimadyl later and we’re home and relaxing. Now I’ve got to keep him on these medicines for 7-10 days, so pretty much right up until I leave town.

Somehow I imagine this vacation is not going to be as relaxing as I’d hoped. If everything wasn’t already paid for and more or less set in stone I’d be tempted to cancel entirely, though I know it’s not exactly healthy to be so attached at the hip with my elderly puppy. But I alone knew about that bloody eye, and I alone noticed how swollen (not very) his eye socket had become. Anxiety doesn’t necessarily listen to reason, and knowing my mom is an excellent care giver doesn’t really ease the feeling.

This trip is going to be a lesson in co-dependency, and I know it’ll be good for us. But I also know if anyone understands unreasonable anxiety and attachment to a three-legged wonder, it’s the Tripawd Nation!

Thanks for letting me get all that off my chest guys.

Wishing you lot the best of the best,

Rascal and Co.

1 Month Post-Op!

Hello Tripawds!

So today we hit a month! Feels weird, like it happened yesterday instead of 4 weeks ago!

38dfe7bf-f650-47ca-a821-10577d4d2746 — Propositioned for playtime!

The good news: Rascal is doing fantastic! From taking himself out to potty to jumping up onto the couch and playing with our other pets! He’s returning to some of his normal routines from before and it’s been such a relief to see. Hops right on over to his old spot for food instead of sticking to the area rug where he’s been since surgery! The little things y’know?

The bad news: Rascal has grown accustomed to the spoiling that took place early post-op and now makes silly demands. He’ll take himself out to do something, but will then bark until someone comes to get him because he doesn’t want to bring himself back in. Or he’ll be chillin’ out on the couch and will huff until one of us brings a small water bowl to him for a drink versus jumping down to go get a drink himself.

Trying to break Rascal of these quickly formed habits has been like pulling teeth! We make him walk when he doesn’t want to because we can differentiate between laziness and true fatigue, and he’ll pout the whole way. We help him off the couch and tell him to get his own water from the giant bowl that everyone else uses, and again with the huffing and the pouting! It’s equal parts frustrating and hilarious!

Today was a good day though, we left him truly alone for the first time since his surgery to go to a wedding! We puppy-proofed the house and locked them in, and then we all left! Fast forward a few hours and it’s as normal as prior to surgery, everyone’s happy we’re home but no disasters to speak of! If anything they just seemed bored.

Overall it feels great to have come this far, and for life to be resuming with hardly any hitch in our giddy-up! I actually have less pictures and less to say because now all that’s left is for his hair to finish growing in and things will be mostly back to normal!

Celebrating one more success for the Tripawd Nation,

Rascal and Co.

More Dog or The Week in Photos

So it’s picture dump time!

I never mentioned what we did when we took Rascal to Home Depot! We picked out paint colors! It’s been a long time since we’ve done the exterior of our home, and we decided to figure it out! We’re starting with one chunk at a time, working our way up to the entire house. We decided on doing the house/decking grey and all the trim purple! We’re eccentric, we can pull off purple.

I caught a candid shot of Rascal one afternoon enjoying a car ride in his dapper bow tie. His neck-skin is so loose it sort of hangs over his fashionable accessory, especially when he’s as relaxed as he is in this photo! He had accompanied me to a quick hair job for a friend of mine. He frolicked in her yard, enjoyed a nap on her carpet, and flirted his little heart out with her! No vet visits for this dog! Only sunshine and fun times! His little lady back home is definitely getting jealous that he’s hogging all the car rides and going out all the time without her! Dual dog park trips will have to be implemented.

Soon after that we enjoyed some yoga on the front deck. He loves just spending time out there, smelling the breeze and soaking up sunshine, I can try and make him walk around but he usually settles somewhere and just gives me imperious glances. As seen in this shot we’ve both got a leg out!

Rascal hasn’t gotten back into the swing of bedtime cuddles, but he is all about the day time chair sharing! Caught this candid image when he was napping beside the Queen of the house, his human’s mom! She puts down a little pillow and everything for him, so he always enjoys his time sharing a chair with her. As we can see here, out like a light! He enjoys tucking his back legs up against us, he tends to just drop off to dreamland if his back legs are digging into our sides!

In an effort to be more dog, I have just dumped all the random photos to do with the master of mischief himself, even if there’s no particular theme or reason behind them! Soon to come, pictures of Rascal chilling out on the deck while we try and paint it around him!

Wishing the Tripawd Nation all the best, you wonderful dogs you,

Rascal and Co.

2 Weeks Post-Op!

Another week bites the dust in the face of Rascal’s gumption!

20150713_103921_resized — No stitches or staples!

Just this morning Rascal made his latest scary trip to the vet’s and had his stitches removed, smoothly and with no trouble at all. That’s my good boy!

For some fun we took Rascal with us on the rest of our errands, we have a summer project in the works and he got to ride around in the cart through Home Depot! Failed to get a picture since he was so pumped there wasn’t a moment of holding still. His human’s arms are exhausted since his exciting day out ended with a half hour drive home in which his human held him through a nice soothing car nap. Rascal sure loves those long car rides! Windows down, wind in his hair, portable water bowl, and bow tie style! He actually begins jumping around and getting excited the minute the bow tie goes on!

20150710_152915_resized — Puppy girl has a hoarding problem.

He continues to charm all the people he meets and is even trying to play with our 70 lb puppy when they’re both in the yard together. Just yesterday he was chasing her and got going so fast he nearly face-planted into the grass! Neither dog wants to listen to those blasted humans telling them to mellow out. Just goes to show how strong this little guy is that he’s still wanting to rough-house with a dog four times his size!

Since the family has been more vigilant about keeping the stairs off limits we have fortunately not had any new sneak attacks trying to go where he’s not currently allowed; but he is getting a bit more exercise now that he’s been weened off of his heavy-duty pain medications. Just the other day he walked a good way unassisted to get to the front yard for his outside time where he proceeded to chase birds, roll about in the grass and get a little sun.

20150712_161729_resized — True love is smushing your face into your human.

He’s still milking the whole experience for treats and extra affection, god forbid we leave him alone in a room! He’ll bark until someone comes to get him! He either comes with us wherever we’re going, or we stay put near him. He simply will not tolerate being stuck somewhere by himself.

Overall it’s been a really good week, he’s healing well and behaving as best as he can. He’s even lost a little weight from the leaner diet we switched him to the week before surgery! So much loose skin! It’s all squishy and makes him extra fun to cuddle.

Wishing the Tripawd Nation all the best things,

Rascal and Co.

1 Week Post-Op!

We survived the first week! The enthusiasm I’m feeling is over the top and vaguely ridiculous.

To give you guys a good idea of how awesome and simultaneously terrifying this week has been, I have pictures and a story:

This bruising only appeared after Rascal slept on his incision/stump for the first time on his Farabloc blanket. Until that time he had remained on his good side, and hadn’t had any bruising.

But as you can see with the second photo, as fast as it appeared it was gone. Back to his pink skin with hardly any sign it’d ever been there at all. And yes, he is still sleeping incision side down on the Farabloc, the bruising just hasn’t reappeared. He may be 13 years old, but this dog is healing like a champion. I’m so excited about the progress we’ve made together, and the funny antics that have punctuated his experience so far. He proves to me over and over what an amazing animal he is. It makes me so grateful that he’s spending his life with me and that we’re doing this thing together. He’s not bitter, he isn’t pouting; he’s just trying to convince me he totally can jump off the couch without assistance even though he knows the one time he tried he face-planted into his bed. Thank goodness for strategically placed soft things!

To say that there haven’t been any scary moments or near-disasters would be a falsification on my part. As part of this wonderful community I feel I have to share the moments that feel like failures as well because we got through them, even if they could’ve gone horribly wrong. Some of this has been pure luck, and I am not the perfect human that watches him every second of every day.

One such moment was when the baby gate was down so that my pops could come and retrieve his lunch and bring it back downstairs with him. We were all preparing to eat and moving about, and not one of us noticed Rascal hobbling after pops knowing that he’s the sucker most likely to share some food. We only realized when pops called up, “Rascal is somehow down here and begging!”

To put it simply, Rascal climbed down our thirteen wooden stairs with no supervision, and it could’ve been such a disaster. My appetite gone, I rushed down to check him over and direct my angry panic at my poor pops who wasn’t any more aware of it than I was.

How could he not close the baby gate behind him! Never mind the food that occupied his hands, Rascal’s safety was momentarily at risk! I don’t care that he’s fine I’m too busy freaking out at the possibilities of what could’ve happened!

It was scary, it could have gone so terribly and Rascal could have been seriously injured. Our stairs are steep and have no runners to help him grip. I can only chalk it up to Rascal having so many years of practice going up and down those damned steps that kept him okay when no one was looking. I’ve been so paranoid about the many stairs in and around my hilltop house since, that the gates are always up and the family members are having to use the outdoor stairs to go between floors because that cannot happen again.

So yes, Rascal is doing well and healing with aplomb. But that also means he doesn’t really seem to understand his limits, and he’s willing to put himself in some questionable situations when I so much as focus on a meal.

However, today is not about how close Rascal came to injury. Today is about the fact that he didn’t hurt himself, and he’s had an entire week to try. Time to celebrate!

Wishing the Tripawds Nation all the reasons to celebrate with us,

Rascal and Co.