Time to Come Home

This morning we got a call from the surgeon's office saying that Slugger was ready to go home. They said Slugger made it through the night relatively easily with the morphine pain patch. They also said that we have raised a really sweet little boy and they had all fallen in love with him. We were told to pick him up a little before noon. Even though it's only been one day we sure missed having him around.

We got to the surgeon's office about 11:30am. Turns out it was none too soon. Little Slugger had really won the staff over - being the little lover that he is. Four different gals that worked there said that he is a real charmer and hated being alone. (When Slugger is sad he does this very soft, sad little chirping sound.) The sad little chirping really got to the staff's heart so they took turns lying with him in the large cage they had him in so he wouldn't be alone.... and they were all getting kisses of course.

After going over all the discharge instructions with us they brought little Slugger out. He was super sleepy as he'd recently been given a very strong pain medication injection. But he started wagging his tail the second he saw us. His first desire was to smother us with kisses. How sweet.

When they brought him out to us he was wearing an e-collar. This is to keep him from licking or chewing his sutures. I've always hated those collars. I feel sorry for the dogs as they always bump into things and jar their necks. And I feel sorry for the humans as we end up with bruises all over our legs from the dogs bumping into us! But I think it will be almost impossible to move around in an RV with one of those on.

When we got him in the car we noticed that his collar had been chewed up pretty badly. And the part that was chewed was the part that was closest to his neck behind his head. How is that even possible?



It is very jagged around the edge and I was worried this might poke him so I went back in and pointed this out to them. They agreed it could be uncomfortable so they gave us a new collar.

When we got home we decided he would be much more comfortable without the collar. We are so close in the RV that he is just about within arms reach of both of us. So we decided we could keep a close eye on him to make sure he leaves the sutures alone.

Before putting him in the RV we wanted to let him have a chance to potty. The girls of course wanted to check him out right away to see what had happened to their little brother.



The long road to recovery begins now.

Debbie
5/1/07