Post-Op Pt. 2

"Low activity" does not apply to this puppy. Short of locking her in her crate for hours on end, there was no way we could control her running or jumping after the surgery. We tried, at least I did for the first day or so. After that, I just tried to limit how much she was doing at one time. After the first night and the "cone" situation, Bella was back to her normal self. On Tuesday, I did not walk her in the afternoon, which caused her to be a little crazy in the late afternoon when Chassie took her out of the crate. Then at six o'clock I got a frantic phone call. At first, I couldn't understand what the problem was. Then it came out that Bella had gotten a Kong toy stuck on her jaw. Chassie was not able to take it off and when she freaked out, Bella freaked out which made it worse. As I was about to leave work and head home, Chassie calls to tell me that Bella got it off and everything was okay.

Wednesday, I decided to give her a low energy walk. It seemed to help as I don't recall Chassie being too upset about her energy level that evening. During the evenings, after dinner I had been downstairs, trying to control her activity level. At times it would work. Then she would get a mean streak in her and run around the room, back and forth, up on the couch and then off the couch. She'd stop and stare at me and then tuck tail the other direction and continue around the room.

It was much the same for the rest of the week. I picked up a "replacement" for Bucky the Beaver, it's of similar type and hopefully quality. I call him Mr. Fox and she seems to have taken to him much like she took to Bucky. However, it seems that Mr. Fox is the culprit of Bella's Crazy Escapade. As soon as she gets him, she's digging her paws into the carpet and off she goes. She doesn't get him very often.

We kept our eyes on her wound and it seemed to our untrained eyes that it was getting better. When we were with her, we did not use the cone and she didn't seem to lick it or chew at it nearly at all. When she was alone in her crate, we put the cone on to make sure that she couldn't get to it. We were fairly confident going into the follow-up appointment that everything would be okay.

The follow-up appointment was scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. Again, I was to take her by myself. As it turns out, Chassie decided to take the day off and we took her together. Since Bella is getting a little bit larger, there's not much room for both her and I in the front seat of Chassie's Honda, so I took the back seat with Bella. The ride over was pretty uneventful, she stayed close to me for most of the ride. We arrived at our appointment right on time and quickly Bella was looked at by the vet's assistant and we were told that things were looking good. We'd have to keep the cone on for a few more days while she's left alone, but it looks like it's healing well. That's the good news.

The ride home began much the same as the ride to the vet. Then things changed. Bella began to get restless as we were closing in on home. Then she began pacing in circles in the back seat. Then I saw her butt open up and watched as her poop started to fall onto Chassie's backseat. I think the words that came out of my mouth were, "Oh God. She's pooping. In your car. It's poop." Then I freaked out which caused both Bella and Chassie to freak out. I dropped the leash as I looked around the backseat for anything to use for cleanup, as my mouth was saying, "Is there a bag? Do you have something to clean this up with? Oh, the smell, it's awful. I think I'm going to puke."

Chassie handed me a bag and I proceed to try to catch the poop as it's falling out of her butt. For future reference, this actually freaks them out. Don't try it. Bad idea. She moves away from me, continuing to poop and then disappears into the front seat. I'm not sure if Chassie is laughing hysterically at this point or not, but she asks, "Why did you let her get into the front seat?"

I have no real response to that, but I think I said, "I have to clean the poop up out of your backseat." I begin to pick the poop up. Luckily, we have come to a stop at a red light. Chassie has already opened the windows and the sunroof, trying to air the car out. She asks if we should pull over. I think we should. She pulls off the main road and stops on the side road and now I know she's laughing hysterically. I'm in the back seat, cleaning up the poop, choking on the smell and trying not to vomit. Then I realize that there's smaller pieces on the seat that I haven't picked up. I'm yelling that there's more poop, Chassie can barely breath she's laughing so hard and Bella must be wondering what she did to cause all this commotion. Chassie hands me some napkins and I pick up the rest of the droppings, tie the bag closed and hand it to Chassie who flings it out the window. We fold up the blanket, that luckily was covering her backseat and I take Bella into the back with me. Chassie then gets out of the car and grabs the bag which she just tossed out and puts it and the blanket into the trunk. We get back on the road and I beg her to keep the windows open even though it was snowing on the way to the vet. By this point Bella has calmed down and actually has laid down in my lap. You can't really stay mad at, when she's just so darn cute. I did call her "Pooper" for the next day though.

I promise, I'm not trying to make this blog about poop. It just kinda happens. The weird thing is, she will not poop on a walk. I don't even take a bag with me. She will wait until we get back to our house and inside our fence before she poops. Or she just decides to do it in random places, when I'm least expecting her to do it. I can't wait for the next occurrence and you'll be the first to know.