Recovery

Hannah Joy was very subdued when we brought her home from her surgery last Tuesday. She is a total cuddle bunny and hates to be away from us. She even always sleeps on our bed, but our bed is high and the veterinarian said she wasn’t supposed to do any leaping or jumping so I planned to sleep on the couch for a few nights while she recovered. I figured she could either sleep on the floor or settled on the couch with me.

Hannah Joy has always been extremely intelligent and observant and she knows our routines. At night, she will run and jump into bed when she sees me beginning my bedtime routine, but on the weekends when EJ is home, she will first run over to him to get her goodnight kiss before heading off to bed. Tuesday night, my routine was a little different. She watched me pull a blanket off the bed and spread it on the couch. I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, etc., and when I came out, I found Hannah already sitting on the couch, as if she realized that we were sleeping there that night. When I lay on the couch and covered myself up with the blanket, Hannah crawled up on my chest and we snuggled…for awhile.

The couch isn’t very comfortable and I didn’t sleep well. Hannah Joy didn’t either. In the bedroom, I always shut the curtains at night and shut the door to keep out distractions, including the cats. Sleeping in the living room, Hannah Joy grumbled at the cats who were prowling about or went to the window barking at the wildlife she sensed was outside, which, of course, woke me. Finally, at about 7 am, she got up for some reason or another so I got up to use the master bathroom. When I came out, Hannah was sitting on the bed, waiting for me. “You aren’t supposed to be jumping up on the bed,” I told her. But since she was there already…I shrugged, grabbed the pillow and blanket from the couch, got into the bed, and we both got the best sleep of the night. I have been keeping the bedroom door shut during the day to keep Hannah Joy from jumping on the bed too much, but at night we’ve been sleeping in the bed as normal.

We had brought home a cone but the veterinarian had said we could use a t-shirt–or nothing–if Hannah left her incision alone. I put an old favorite t-shirt on Hannah at first, but it was long and she kept getting caught in it even though I tried to pin it up out of the way. So Wednesday I just took it off her. She didn’t start licking the incision until Friday so I put a smaller t-shirt on her. It was an old Lord of the Rings shirt that has a hole in it, and which I never wear anymore, but it was such a favorite t-shirt that I didn’t want to get rid of it. I didn’t mind donating it to Hannah. She did much better with the smaller shirt, and I cut it a little and pinned the sides up so it didn’t hang down. It mostly kept her from accessing her “owie.” She somehow wiggles out of it at night, so I’ve begun taking it off her when we go to bed. I wake up whenever she starts licking her incision in the night so I can stop her.

I think dogs must have a magical ability to heal faster than humans. If I had surgery like Hannah’s, I would have been taking it easy for days, but she has quickly bounced back, acting very much like normal. She’s been a bit of a rascal.

My friend sent Hannah Joy a “get well” gift. It was delivered by UPS on Thursday. Hannah was very excited to get it, as you can see in the video.

Hannah Joy is such an aggressive chewer that she quickly destroys all but the toughest toys. I had to throw her new toy away a few hours later when she started to eat it, but she enjoyed it while it lasted. Hannah didn’t want to give up her toy, and we had a fierce tug-of-war. Holding on to the toy that she was gripping with her teeth, I was able to drag her over to her tin of treats. I put the opened tin on the floor, hoping she would let go of the toy in favor of the treats. She did, but then I had a struggle to get her head out of the tin before she ate all the treats. Hannah Joy is a stubborn girl.

Today is the first day of deer hunting season. EJ left Saturday afternoon to go to his usual hunting place on the other side of the state–his friend’s parents’ 100-acre woods. EJ has known the family for so long that he is considered an honorary member of the family. There are several heated hunting shacks throughout the forest so each has a cozy place to hunt, which is good because we are having a rainy day with high winds, which is forecasted to turn to snow later. EJ texted me this morning that he had shot Clarisse. He always calls any doe he gets “Clarisse” after the girlfriend of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. 😥 EJ is still out in his hunting shack, hoping for another deer.

Meanwhile, here at home in our Enchanted Forest, the high winds knocked out our power this morning. When I called the power company to report it, their recording listed multiple counties without power. I got out our little propane heater but did not set it up because it was still relatively warm outside (low 50s). I, myself, have set up the heater so seldom that I’m never confident that I will remember how and I always make EJ give me a refresher lesson at the beginning of each winter, which we haven’t done yet this year. Fortunately, we were only without power for about an hour today. Hopefully, our power will remain on so I don’t have to worry about it.

The most annoying thing is that for some reason our fire alarm started squealing when the power went out and it wouldn’t shut up. I would have simply taken out the battery if it had one, but the alarm is wired in, and I couldn’t figure out how to shut it off. I’m not sure how it could be sounding with the power off? I considered yanking the stupid thing out of the wall or smashing it with a hammer, but instead Hannah and I went into the bedroom and closed the door. When the power came back on, the alarm stopped its clamor. Whew.

EJ returns home tomorrow.