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Day 11- Venturing Out

One of the tougher parts of caring for an injured pup is having one person watching over the dog at all times. At. All. Times. Our dog essentially became our newborn. No showers until the other parent comes home, one person on duty, another off, barely any sleep and so on. I should also add that it was never explicitly stated, "you must be home to watch your dog 100% of the time." We were only gently reminded, urged and hounded that, "yes, dogs scratch their eyes while wearing the cone," "Some dogs will break out of their cone," "Most problems occur from dogs causing trauma to themselves," "Wow... with a dog like Stella, she'll find a way..." We weren't going to take chances with how far we came. No, she wasn't really interested in getting her cone off, it only scared her when she trotted around the house or ate so zealously that her bowl flipped over into her face. But, I strongly urge that if your dog is anything like mine, you do the same. 100% commit or chance the problems.

Of course in real-people life, this poses a problem because seldom do people understand the line, "I can't I have to be home to watch my dog..." And naturally during this two week recovery, there will be things that you just can't miss. So if you're like us, together you all go.

Stella was all too eager to get out of the house, especially when she realized that we were heading in the opposite direction of the vet's. While one of us went inside to visit, the other was driving a confused and disappointed Stella around town, taking out her frustration by thrashing her cone against the rearview mirror, Stella SMASH. We missed two compresses while we were out, but it was worth it for both, er, all of us, to do something together in the real world.

Disclaimer: We only decided to do this because she was far into the healing process and in better shape than the previous week. It was also stressful thinking she was going to scratch her face against something in the vehicle and could have been as problematic as if we decided to leave her home unattended. We don't advise doing this, but understand that sometimes you just need to get out- dog included.

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