A trip down memory lane...

FIRST, here is the promised picture of poor gimpy Remus the day after his surgery. Notice the giant bandaid on his belly and the fentanyl patch on his sides. Both adhesives that had to be removed two days later, ouch. Also notice how close they shaved him, so close they nicked him in several places, especially around his elbow. At least his head cone is clear, the other one we have for him is opaque white.

Now I figured we'd take a trip down memory lane. I've got to try and stay awake a few more hours before sleeping before work, so this'll keep me occupied as well as anything else. I suppose I should wait until Remus is at least a year old, though he's not supposed to stop growing until 18 months, but he'll be 9 months tomorrow and thats halfway done, so good enough. I will continue to reiterate that Remus for the most part, does not seem like a big dog to me. On the contrary, he's about average, I hope he grows a little more even. Only every once in awhile am I struck by the fact that other people must consider him large. When I'm walking him, for instance, and I hold his collar without extending my arm, when he sticks his head on the counters without getting on his back legs, when he DOES get on his back legs and he is fast approaching taller than me. THEN I think, hmm, mayhaps he is a bit tall... intimidating he is not, but tall, I submit, is accurate. Enough rambling, on to pictures! He was so LITTLE at one point!

Look at his cute little "sit"! He does not know what to make of Brian or the moose toy.

My big baby! Approx 100lbs and almost 9mo :)

Eating my foot....

Still eating my foot....

The spider is almost bigger than he is...

Now spider is sans legs, sans stuffing, sans squeakers, and has only one eye...

Thats all I have for now :)

Really?

Remus has Athlete's Foot. Apparently going from cast to bandage and basically having his foot in a sock for over two weeks can cause fungus. So even though I should be able to remove his collar since his stitches are finally out, I can't because he keeps trying to eat his foot. I dutifully went to the grocery store to try and find a spray antifungal for his burning tootsie and it's a good thing the Vet had given me a plan B because all I found in FoodLions First Aid section was a lonely can of Jock Itch relief, tucked embarrasedly on the far edge of a shelf behind a hanging display of bandaids. I'm wondering what kind of excuses people use when they buy Jock Itch Relief, I'm pretty sure "It's for my puppy. No seriously, he has Athlete's foot." Is one they don't hear every day...Perhaps it treats the same fungus, but I wasn't sure, so I picked up some Listerine and Baby oil (Plan B) and left.  I dutifully poured one cap of Listerine and one cap of water into a bowl and soaked Remus's itchy foot for a few seconds. The baby oil is in case it dries out.

It gets better. So I'm feeling all sympathetic for Remus's plight, I've never had athletes foot but just the fact that I can no longer leave the head cone off at all is sorely dampening his puppy spirits. Being a concerned pet owner, I therefore decide maybe we should tie Remus out on the porch when we leave to go for a quick run instead of leaving him inside. Change of sights and smells and all that, he seems to like being outside. We've never had problems leaving him tied up before with the cone on, so we don't anticipate any problems now. Well, about 1.5 hours later we return and I look at the porch expecting to see Remus straining at the end of his leash to watch us pull in. He doesn't even get up. As we pull into the driveway, we realize it's not for lack of trying, Remus WANTS to get up, but he can't. Why? Because the genius dog  managed to hog tie himself. I don't know how he managed it, but the leash was securely wrapped around his L front and L back foot and he lifted and head and thumped his tail like mad, but he was unable to get off his side. I put him out of his misery before running inside to get a camera, but I've attempted a brief sketch in paint to illustrate his dilemna.

Not gonna lie, Brian and I laughed pretty hard when we saw it, but I untangled him right away and I don't think he suffered any long term harm. Shoot, he wasn't even embarrased, he was geniunely confused as to why he couldn't stand up.  Note to self, don't leave Remus outside on a leash....

P.S. he's now 96lbs :)

Imperfections

I am not a perfect pet owner. There are times when the thought of beating Remus senseless gives me perverse pleasure. I am trying to make this whole "restricted activity" as painless as possible for the puppy, and yes, I know, he has no clue whats going on....but still! Instead of keeping him crated 24/7, I have used his leash to tie him to his crate so he has a greater radius of space. He can get in and out of his crate, get to his food and water, sprawl out on the carpet, the works. No, it's not as much space as he usually haves, but he's not supposed to play AT ALL or run or even walk fast. I ALSO try to keep the head cone off as often as possible (as long as he shows no inclination to chew on his bandage) so that he can enjoy eating, drinking, and chewing on his bone without that giant cumbersome plastic satellite dish in the way. So what does he do? He chewed through his leash.

Now, before people start asuming he did so to "free himself", Remus is not that intelligent. The leash was severed. Completely. Did the puppy then make a wild break for it and dash through the living room? No, he continued to chew on the leash.  And chew. And chew. And chew. Laying down, perfectly content in shredding his own means of limited freedom. Once we noticed, he got a smack on the nose an emphatic "stupid dog!" from Brian and crate confinement for the rest of the night. He gets crate confinement for most of tomorrow, too, and depending on how generous I'm feeling he might have crate confinement until thursday when his bandage comes off. And crate confinement means that collar stays on as well. BUH! It makes me want to kick him! I mean not really...well, yes, kind of....more like just strangle his awkward scrawny little neck until he has some sense!

I know, it's irrational to assume he'll ever be intelligent enough to link that complex of an idea together (Idea: Surgery, I'm on limited activity, this leash is better than the crate, therefore I should not chew it...) but it makes me so frustrated! Other things that make me frustrated? His limited attention span. His occasional refusing to follow commands. His WHINING! The fact that all these things make me angry and I hate being angry!

I'm not angry now, I've had wine. Wine tends to make me more inclined to giggle then to yell. But tomorrow I'm going to PetsMart and buying him a thick heavy chain. With spikes on it. Lets see if he can chew through that! Also, I'm going to brush his teeth. HA! He should be properly contrite (AKA, oblivious) by the time I'm done with him...