Everybody lies

posted on Thursday, January, 15th, 2009 in default

She made it.

It took me a while to dare to say it, because all the time I was afraid to jinx it. But I guess, since it’s been 2 weeks after the operation today, I can finally relax and say it out loud.

She made it. She is not fully recovered yet, but she is making good progress and she’s almost back to her usual form.

On Monday we went to the vet for the last time and she had the stitches taken out. The scar looks fine and healed well. No wonder, considering the good care I took of her. The whole first ten days after the operation I rarely left her out of my sight for more than 5 minutes – and even that only when I knew my parents were around to look after her. We slept together in the living room, me on the couch, she on the floor right next to it on several blankets.

The first night she had to sleep off the anesthesia, but in the second night I had to take her out every 2 hours to pee. Needless to say that was the coldest night of this winter so far with -25°C. Figures.

Luckily, the following nights got better (if not less cold) and after a couple of days she woke me only once or twice a night. But I honestly didn’t mind too much getting up again and again, because her having to pee every 2 hours at least showed that her kidneys were working well – which was exactly the problem that killed our last dog. So, who cares that I froze my ass off 5 times a night? It was a sign of recovery, that’s all I cared about. After I stopped shivering.

One thing she hated like hell was her having to wear one of those funnel-shaped plastic contraptions around her neck to keep her from licking the wounds. It looked kind of funny, though and I wish I had taken a lot more photos of her wearing it and sulking. *LOL*

Because her whole belly had to be shaven (shaved?) it now not only looks quite funny (I still have to take a photo of that), but it’s also quite exposed, especially with the cold weather and the snow and all. So I sacrificed one of my old t-shirts for her. I cut the back into strips which I can then tie neatly into bows on her back, when we take her for a walk. Funnily, she doesn’t seem to mind the thing one bit.

Yes, I know it doesn’t look exactly stylish. I’m working on a better solution already, since she will need something for the next couple of weeks until her fur grows back. In fact, my dad says it looks totally embarrassing and he cringes everytime he has to take her out into public in this outfit. But he just has to suck it up, because I sure as hell won’t risk her getting a cold now after all this drama!

On Monday the vet also gave us the bill for all this. When my mom saw the figure she only said, now the bloody dog will have to live forever to redeem this ridiculous expense. How much, you ask? A whopping 484,- Euros. (For the Americans among you, that’s roughly about 640 US $.)That’s about twice as much as my car is worth – but, ok, that’s not saying much.

Well, the things you do for family … We are all just relieved that this time it all went well and our baby is fine.