Forrest Update

Forrest is doing GREAT!

She came through her surgery just fine, and in fact was up and walking around the next morning. Our wonderful vet actually went in on his day off to check on her, and he called me personally to let me know how she was doing. I just LOVE that man.

He said she was ready to go anytime, but really wanted her to stay at the clinic all day for observation, so Sig and I planned to pick her up at around 5:30 or so. We had some preparing to do first!

Since she's so young (estimated at about 8 months, give or take) and we know nothing of her history, crate training is definitely in order. Thank goodness we kept the giant crates we bought when we adopted Bailey...

Rinsing out the crates

Sig is threatening me if I don't stop taking pictures and help clean out the crates

We have two like this - one for upstairs, one for downstairs.

Forrest's new downstairs home

After getting the crates ready, we headed to the vet to pick up our girl. I didn't get any pics of her at the clinic, but trust me when I say she was one happy pup when she saw us. 

We got her home and introduced her to her new sisters. They were all a little freaked out because of the e-collar (cone) she has to wear. Riley was pretty uncertain about her - but Riley doesn't take well to new dogs so that was to be expected. Bailey immediately wanted to play, and Casey ran off in a different direction and pooped. Yup, about par for everyone. They are all getting along just fine.

I took a few shots of Forrest getting used to her new home:

Already figuring out how to defeat the pet gate...

 

Getting acquainted with Bailey

Poor shaved puppy butt

Happy puppy!

Tired puppy

"Helping" Mama Sig with the dishes

Pain meds

Cutting the Rimadyl

Everyone was pretty exhausted after we got home and settled, so at bedtime I put her in her crate and decided to stay downstairs with her. She made it clear she does NOT like the crate, so in the interest of actually getting some sleep, I decided to let her out and spread a blanket on the floor next to the couch for her. After a little more exploring, she plopped down on the blanket and fell asleep. I woke up at midnight to give her a pain pill, and she cried a little but fell asleep again when I rested my hand on her back.

I was not really comfortable leaving her in the crate with her cone on, but since we absolutely must leave the cone on, we tried penning her up in the kitchen so she'd have a little more space. It worked for a while, but when Sig came home for lunch Forrest had knocked the gate down. She tried to pen her up more securely, but by the time I got home she had busted out again. I read up on crating dogs with cones on, and realized it's done all the time, so she'll just have to get used to it. The first test will come tomorrow while we're out with the family for Thanksgiving day.

I'm off for the next few days, so today was spent mostly lazing around. We had a bad moment earlier when Forrest got super excited and went tearing around the corner in the hallway, only to have her legs slip from under her and send her crashing to the hard floor right on her stump. OUCH!! Poor puppy! She whined and cried for a little bit while we loved on her, but soon enough she was up and skipping around again. Luckily, it was only ten minutes until her pain pill dose, so she was feeling better after she got her pill. We'll probably take her in to the clinic just to double check, though.

She likes to go outside

Forrest and Riley

Waiting for her cookie

She has discovered the chew toys - yay!

The rest of the afternoon was spent napping. As you can see, Forrest has not allowed the cone to get in the way of her comfort:

This was one sacked out puppy! I can't wait until next week, when hopefully she gets her stitches/staples/sutures out and we can dump the cone.

Yeah, I know we can't save them all...but I'm glad we were able to save this one.

Mmmm goooood drugs...

Bailey watching over her new sister

Determined pup!