Yesterday’s milestone happened early in the day. Romeo had been sleeping on the dog bed on the floor next to our bed. He decided he was ready for a change of scenery and got up by himself took the few hops to the bed, jumped up and laid on the bed. (Just to clarify, our mattress and box spring are on the ground so the bed is at Romeo’s chest height.)
A few things about this were impressive. First, this was the first time since he had been home that he had gotten to a standing position without our encouragement. And second, usually when he gets up on the bed he has been landing on his face. But this time he seemed to know where his legs were going and settled down in a controlled manner.
I thought today’s milestone was going to be when Romeo got off one of the dog beds by himself and walked to the back door all by himself. I wasn’t even standing next to him. It was very impressive.
I helped him out the back door and down the step, held him up while he peed and gave him a fresh bowl of water. I assumed that after drinking, he’d be ready to go back inside to sleep.
I was wrong and I got to see his next accomplishment. Without me even standing near him, Romeo walked to the far end of our back yard, meandered around, ate a little grass, laid in the sun and seemed to be enjoying himself.
He did have some stumbles but tends to catch himself with his chin instead of his healing “shoulder” which is nice for his incision but not for his chin. This dog needs a chin guard. Thankfully the dirt is at least a little cushy.
For almost ten minutes, Romeo hung around and wandered the backyard, all without any help from me. Here’s some proof:
He’s getting the hang of this :)