Update on Bruce

Here's a quick update for those of you who want to know about my baby Bruce Wayne.

He is feeling pretty well considering and the first evening home he wanted to be on us or on the couch next to us cuddling with anything that had a scent of home, which we were more than happy to let him do. We decide it was better for him to sleep in a crate for a while to keep him confined and out of trouble. My mom brought over the crate she had purchased for her dog a while and it was plenty big for Bruce to have room to wander around.

Sleepin' on the couch.

He was drugged out, scared, and upset that he was in this big box. I put the crate right next to the couch (where I would be sleeping for the night) with the TV on so he wouldn't think we were just shoving him out here alone, and that just didn't go well. He must have though since I was next to him if he cried enough I would let him out.

poor puppy - he HATES the cone of shame.

HOURS went by and his cries never lost steam. I tried putting a blanket over his crate at about 1 AM so that it was darker and he might just go to sleep. Imagine my relief when he did stop. I finally started to drift off at about 2 AM. Just as I felt myself falling asleep, the crying started up again. I climbed into bed at about 4:30 AM with earplugs to try and get a few hours of sleep.  

He was totally giving us dirty looks.

Wednesday I stayed home from work so I could monitor him. He was on medications which gave him a false sense of "everything is great!" and he was jumping up on the couch, running, standing, basically anything they tell you not to let them do, he was doing. It was a beautiful day and he loves the outside, so I let him out on his lead to enjoy the sunshine. It's a short lead so he can't really run or jump on anything out there.

He looks so funny with that cone. It's like a cheap lampshade!

By the end of the day, his incision was definitely agitated and swollen. We made the tough decision to keep him crated for 80% of the time, only coming out to get some extra lovin' if he stays calm, food/water, and potty. It's been pretty tough because he is definitely sad in there, but it is what's best. Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, I looked at his incision and it was worlds away from what it was the night before, which thrilled us. Bruce doesn't understand why he is not given free range of the house like normal and doesn't understand why he can't stretch up and look at the window and to be honest I felt really bad for getting after him for things that normally wouldn't have been an issue. The crate has provided us with the sense of security and safety for him and us.

I realize he looks aggressive here, he wasn't. He just
doesn't photograph well I guess!

He was able to come out for a little while last night and wanted to play. I played with him very gently and just kind of let him "mouth" a toy ring without having him play tug of war or anything with it, and I think he really enjoyed the "play time" even if it was really subdued. He cuddled with the toy ring later that night in his crate :-).

The crying for the past 2 nights has subdued somewhat, I think mainly because he knows we are going to get him out through out the day, but it's still tough. He goes to the vet's office tomorrow to get his pain patch off his leg and they will check him out and make sure everything is healing as it should - fingers crossed!