FitzpatrickLand!

Nine days after surgery, Romeo ran for the first time. Today, 16 days post amputation, I finally caught this feat on video.

Not that Romeo needs the help, but I think Julio was trying to stand in for Romeo’s fourth leg.

Working a long day isn’t conducive to blogging about my dog. Here’s the mini version of Romeo’s day yesterday

• Slept in my office
• Got treats from coworkers
• Slept more
• Met a nice family who adopted a Great Dane from our shelter
• Slept more
• Kicked my desk while dreaming
• Came home and slept

Today’s excitement is a trip to the vet to get his staples out.

A little over a year ago I got to meet the wonderful people at Humane Alliance when our clinic staff got to train with their wonderful team in preparation for the opening of our own high volume, high quality, low cost spay/neuter clinic.

Humane Alliance’s new video just came out and shows what a wonderful resource this organization is.

In August when I visited Humane Alliance for their clinic directors meeting, they asked to interview me for the new video. Being video taped still gets my stomach in knots, but it was nice to see that I didn’t end up looking or sounding silly.

For anyone curious, my snippets are at 5:35 and 6:40

Recently I have focused on Romeo’s accomplishments (since he is doing so well and I’m so happy for him). But it’s time for a break from such cheerfulness. Today I’d like to chat about how Romeo’s amputation has negatively affected me. This realization hit me as I was driving home from work this evening.

When I started going to the gym regularly last year, one of my goals was to no longer weigh more than my Great Dane – which for my height is a healthy goal and quite reasonable. I am happy to say that I achieved this goal. Not that he outweighed me by much (or at all sometimes), but I could truthfully say I didn’t weigh more than Romeo.

Now that Romeo has lost a leg, I have lost this achievement and now outweigh my dog again. Maybe this whole process was put in motion to renew my enthusiasm for going to the gym, giving me a new goal to strive for.

Guess I’ll be getting up at 5am tomorrow.

On the ride to work this morning, contemplating his weight loss strategy

This morning Romeo had his visit to the vet to remove his drain. Romeo managed to jump into the car by himself and got out of the car at the vet’s without too much fuss. Everyone has been very impressed with his progress and he got another thumbs up today.

The drain came out and now the holes get to heal up. He gets to keep his bandage on until he is less oozy. Next his staples come out at the end of the week. So we’re making progress.

Tomorrow we get to talk to OSU about starting chemo.

Today was the first day since Romeo’s surgery that Trent and I were both back to work. Romeo got to spend the day in my office. He has come to work before and has done ok; he can be a bit demanding when he decides he doesn’t want to be left alone but is very content to sleep when I’m at my desk.

Today was the best he has ever done at work. I spent several chunks of this afternoon helping in other areas of the shelter and Romeo was perfectly content to sleep. Of course he had his big fluffy dog bed and lots of space to stretch out.

I may try to take him with me the rest of the week, at least until his staples are out. We’ll see how he does.

Romeo showing off his skills as office buddy

Oh and in case you’re curious, yes the bandage is as pathetic as it looks. I just barely put on enough vet wrap to hold padding over his oozy spots so he wouldn’t drip all over the office. Maybe tomorrow’s bandage will be nicer.

That’s all Romeo has done today. When I got home from work, Romeo had Trent pinned on the couch, using Trent as his pillow. Romeo couldn’t even be disturbed when a cat sat on his face. The life of a lazy dog.

Tomorrow’s adventures will include getting his drain removed. Should be fun.

I missed it and I have no video proof, but Romeo actually ran this afternoon. Trent was home caring for the 4 and 3 legged creatures and one of the dogs requested potty time in the back yard.

Trent opened the back door and Julio ran out to charge the fence and bark. Dante followed at a run and Romeo was right behind him. It wasn’t as fast as he used to run, but Trent said he was graceful and managed to come to a stop without falling.

I can’t wait to see this for myself!

This is all the activity I have seen from him this evening:

Before I get to this morning’s news, I’ll start with last night’s.

Yesterday evening Trent was upstairs working/playing on his computer while I was downstairs cleaning the house. Trent has been using his laptop downstairs for most of this week so he could be with Romeo. But when I’m home, it’s like there is a babysitter and Trent can go have Trent time.

Apparently Romeo had enough of my whirlwind of activity and decided to see what Trent was up to. I found him at the foot of the stairs contemplating how to go see his Trent. I couldn’t envision this going well, so I got Romeo settled on the couch. This was the first time since surgery that Romeo even ventured near the stairs.

I can see Romeo learning how to go up stairs but have a very hard time imagining how he would get down. For now he’s a downstairs dog.

So back to this morning… This morning’s routine was similar to all recent mornings. Feed dogs. Dogs outside to potty. Dogs back to bed. Fix Romeo’s meds. Serve meds to Romeo while he lounges on the couch or bed.

This morning was normal until it was time to prepare Romeo’s meds. All of the animals now know that the sound of pill bottles equals canned dog food. The crowd of animals surrounding me while scooping wet food has grown over the last week. The surprise of the morning was that today that crowd included Romeo. He got up off the couch to join all the other dogs and cats. He even sat and begged for his wet food with magical medicine in the middle.

When the feeding frenzy was done all the animals dispersed. Except for Romeo who laid down where he was for a few minutes before eventually making his way back to his couch.

If Romeo is getting back to his normal self, we may have to start putting the baby gate back across the kitchen. There have been some advantages of his limited mobility, but those days apparently aren’t going to last.

Romeo has gotten more graceful over the last week. Here are some highlights of his accomplishments.

(Warning: Romeo’s bandage is off in this video. There are no close ups of his incision and it doesn’t look gross, but just in case it matters to you, you have been notified.)

Oh, She-Ra’s accomplishment of the day has been to “help” me make the bed and then make herself comfortable. She did this without any help from me.

A week after his return from the vet, Romeo is settling back into his routines.

He sprung off the bed this morning when he heard food being scooped. There was a moderate amount of flailing to get upright, but that happened even when he was four legged.

He got his ears cleaned by Julio.

And now he’s napping on the couch.

But he’s much more alert and into what’s going on in the rest of the house. He’s approaching the realm of a lazy dog instead of a pathetic dog.