Dixie showing off her mobility skills.

Adam's better at this video thing.

I think Dixie is feeling pretty good today. We took a walk down to the end of the block (4 houses down!) and back. She wanted to go further, but I didn't have a leash with me. Those bunnies – I just know she'll go after one if she sees one. Last thing I want to see is a major face plant!


Dixie's back!

Dixie's been laying on her left side where her leg used to be. I think that's a good sign. It is the most bruised today though. It's weird. The top part of the incision doesn't have bruising; all the bruising is on the bottom. I guess gravity is the cause. It's redish-purple. I think it will be gone by next week. I'm only giving her a Tramadol and Rimadyl in the AM and PM now. No point in giving her more drugs than she needs. She's also still taking her Cepha antibiotic and will finish that whole bottle in a couple weeks.

Dixie's incision.

I ordered some medicines from 1-800-PetMeds yesterday. No shipping, no tax and $5 coupon code! Sweet. I ordered a big bottle of Super Joint Enhancer Chewable Tablets and Super VitaChews (both on sale!). As soon as they show up, Dixie will start taking those too. They are chewable—no more shoving my finger down her throat! Except for her fish oil pills, but wrap it up with a little lunch meat or bread, and it goes down like… like lunch meat or bread. Ha.

We are hoping to get back into our house today. Although it's not off to a very good start—the A/C guy forgot to set his alarm and was 2 hours late this morning… *sigh*

Life's pretty good.

Dixie on the way to the vet, laying in a very awkward position. It was funny.

Dixie had a check up this morning. She has been given a clean bill of health and doesn't need to see the vet again until Tuesday, September 8 to get her stitches out. Dr. Stephanie said she looks great. She pressed on Dixie's chest around the incision and Dixie didn't even flinch. There is a little more bruising today than before, but I think that is normal. We also think Dixie's muscles and joints are more sore today, so the doc recommended giving her a Rimadyl. It's an anti-inflammatory and should help. For some reason, I thought it was another pain killer. Dr. Higgins gave her a 24-hr shot of it on Wednesday, so she just went one day without it.

We visited our friend Clint today for a bagel breakfast. Dixie got to meet his and Melissa's two little dogs Willie and Mason. Dixie seemed to really like the two boys, and even ran-hopped around with them. She's also getting good at hopping over things. She totally jumped over a foot-tall wall and didn't face-plant.

Even though we've been travelling a lot lately, we kind of feel like skipping town again. Wish we knew someone up in Payson or up north somewhere. Dixie can't hike right now, but just laying a blanket out in the woods for a picnic sounds delightful. For now, we are held up at the Hattaway's until tomorrow (fingers crossed).

"When it rains, it pours." More like, when it's hot, it gets hotter.

Well, our air conditioner has officially crapped out. It needs a new compressor or to be sent to the dump and replaced with a new, more efficient unit. Dixie, our computers and I toughed it out until about 3pm when it got up to 90 degrees in the house. It was just too hot for a post-amp patient (I'm learning the lingo!) and our computers shouldn't be running in high temps. So we packed up the Beetle with Dixie and her stuff in the hatchback and the iMac buckled in the front seat. Oh boy, how nice cold A/C feels blowing on your face.

In the back seat earlier last week.

At my parents' house, Dixie met up with Roxy and Pixie. They could tell something was wrong with Dixie—there was definitely extra sniffing. They all settled down pretty quickly. Adam met up with us after meeting with the A/C sales guy. We laid on the couch cooling off.

We headed south in Scottsdale to the Hattaway's. Lucky for us, they are off having fun on vaca so there was an empty house for us to crash in. We could have stayed at my parents, but Dixie can't maneuver stairs yet. I didn't want to have to carry her up and down the stairs to the bedroom.

Dixie on drugs.

Dixie slept like a log, unlike me. I tossed and turned all night. I think today calls for a nap!

Good news — Dixie is only taking one kind of pain killer now, Tramadol. We'll see how she does!

Preparation #2

So I'm a planner, an organizer if you will (although you wouldn't know it looking in our house!). When I get really excited or anxious about something, I start planning and shopping. I did all this research. I bought things (see Preparation). I worried about things. In hindsight, the research was helpful, but maybe I didn't need to buy so much.

For example, it's Dixie's first day home and all she really needs or wants is sleep. We have her old dog bed covered in an old blanket. Zero dollars. It's too hot in the house (A/C still out). She is just laying on the tile anyway. She got her bandage off so we put an old t-shirt on to catch any fluid. Zero dollars. I was going to buy or ikea-hack an elevated dog dish contraption. Turns out, a box I already had turned upside-down with it's lid upside-down on the top works just as well. Zero dollars.


I know we will get some use of her Ruff Wear harness after her pain is gone. But, I'm not sure about the Comfy Cone though. With her elbow, there were few ways to cover it up, so she was always getting at it, licking. Her chest on the other hand, we can easily cover up with a t-shirt. Also, we didn't need any anti-skid stuff on the floors either. So far she's sticking to walking on the tile and hasn't fallen too hard yet. Guess we don't need that $5 giant rug from the resale shop after-all. Goin' in the next garage sale.

If you know my mom, you know that it's in my nature to shop. It's just something we do, and I'm pretty good at it. I know how to find the deals and am proud of it. But instead of shopping, maybe I should have been meditating…

My advice: don't go overboard too early. Cross bridges as they come and you might save yourself a buck.

What a surprise!

I can't stop with the !!! We are ecstatic about how well Dixie is doing today. When we got to the hospital, they let us visit with her. I couldn't believe my eyes. She was standing in her kennel! When we opened the door, she tried to escape. She's like, "Let's bounce!" She was still vocalizing a lot, but probably just because she was happy to see us. The doctor show us how she can walk and go potty. It's really amazing.

The vet is pretty convinced that all her vocalizing and crying was due to dysphoria from the morphin-type of drugs she had been getting intravenously. Dysphoria is an extreme mood change such due to trauma that can bring on sadness, anxiety, depression, irritability or restlessness. The vet believes she doesn't react well with such intense drugs and she was totally confused and freaked out. They don't believe her crying necessarily had to do with pain. She was basically have a really bad trip.

Then we took her from the ER to our vet, with a little McDonald's on the way. She liked that. I did too. They removed the bandage and say it's all healing nicely. There is minimal bruising. They gave her a shot of Rimadyl before we left and ordered us back on Friday to check her drain, or remove it. (On a side note, the doctor at the hospital and our regular vet went to veterinary school together in Fort Collins, CO. That was pretty cool.)

Right now she's passed out in an old Land Rover shirt of Adam's. She can get in and out of the car, walk, pee, lay down. It's amazing. Outside she saw a lizard and tried to take off to chase it, but she was on the leash. In time, I'm sure she'll be after bunnies and lizards like before.

Today has brought on a huge sigh of relief. Dixie is such a strong-willed dog. She's going to kick butt as a tripawd! I'm so happy to share this experience with everyone. We love you all, and Dixie loves you too. Come by this weekend and visit with us!

PS: Our stupid A/C still isn't working! It's 88 in here right now. We have all the fans going at full speed. Adam broke down and called the repair guy. We hope it isn't too pricey. We've spent a lot of $$$ in the past 24 hours!

Dixie is walking!

Holy cow. Just watch the video.

We all made it through the night.

Off to the emergency vet to see what they say about Dixie's condition. Unless she had a big turn for the better, I hope they decide to keep her. I don't want to have to transport her back to Horizon, especially since I'm sure she's become comfortable where she is now. Can't wait to see her. I hope her whining is minimal…