A Bowl of Kibble A Day...

I've gotten emails asking for an update on Coco and how he's doing after the surgery. He's doing well, thank goodness. Yesterday I took him back to the vet to have his sutures taken out, and he didn't seem to have a bad reaction to being there again. I'd never seen him so miserable as those days before his surgery, so I was wondering if returning there would frighten him in any way.

Instead, he was the Coco that we all know and love, making friends with all the receptionists and nurses. He's still rather intolerant of other dogs in his vicinity, though. At one point there was a small boxer in the waiting area with us, but a huge aquarium divided the area into two sitting lounges and the two dogs couldn't see each other. Somehow, they got wind that the other was there and began a volley of barking. Nothing in the slightest way aggressive, just more informative. Like, "Are you there?" "Yep, I'm here." "Still there?" "Yep, still here." The young boxer had a bit of a yelp in his bark, like "Arf" whereas Coco has a gruff "Big Guy" warbling bark like, "Whorf." So they made quite the duet, taking turns the way they did.

They eventually took away the young boxer and it was just us in the waiting area. Just as I saw a HUGE Great Dane heading towards us from the parking lot, Coco was called in, oh, lucky stars. He'd been petted by every nurse, one had to clean up after him when he peed in the center of the area, and another asked him to shake hands and gave him treats.

All went well with the surgeon. He'll remain off meds for another week so that we can monitor his behavior because he's been sort of sluggish, but we want to be able to identify if it was just aftermath of surgery or if this lack of energy has to do with his med alteration. In general, though, I've noticed that since last Saturday he's getting that spring back in his step. That makes me very happy.

My favorite picture of him: