Rio was released from the hospital yesterday.  They ended up keeping her an extra day because she hadn’t urinated on her own.  Initially, they thought it could be residual numbness from the epidural, but she was just being a stinker: “I’m only going potty for my momma.”  The doctor finally called us and said that we could come get her, that she probably was just being nervous, and maybe she’d go on her own if she was at home or with me.  We arrived at the hospital, and I took her outside for one last try before they released her, and she made a LAKE!

Seeing her was pretty shocking.  I’ll admit I was nervous about fainting — like I said, I’m squeamish — but I was determined to be strong.  She had extensive bruising around both the surgical site and from one end of her belly to the other.  It was an angry dark reddish-purple.  The doctor had warned us ahead of time, and when we got to the front desk, the ladies there warned us again about how bad it looked.  Even with the warning, though, it was pretty nasty looking, and I could feel the tears burning.  But I held it together.  Her happiness to see us made my heart hurt a little less.  Her little tail started wagging and she did her little signature “woo, woo, woo.”  It was so cute!  (From what I’ve been reading, I think maybe the massive bruising was at least in part caused by the salmon oil that we give her as a daily supplement — turns out it can act as a blood thinner.  I wish I’d known this ahead of time.)

She was so happy to see her sisters, too.  She practically dragged me from the garage to the front door and up the steps so that she could get inside to see them.  And even the “Wrecking Ball” was surprisingly gentle with her, although both Tosca and Zephyr seemed like they couldn’t get enough of sniffing Rio’s behind.

We had an uneventful night, although I woke in a panic at one point thinking she was gone from her bed.  She was there, though, in exactly the same spot all night.  Today she has slept a lot, but has also fallen back into some of her old routines, like following me to the bathroom because it’s near the “Magic Closet” where her cookies are kept, and she might just get one.  She likes her new bed, but still wants to sleep in her special spot on the couch.  She also thought hard about joining in the bark fest when the UPS guy stopped by.  I had to grab her collar to keep her from racing to the front door.  At one point, she laid down on the laminate flooring, and I was certain she’d have trouble getting back up, but she managed all by herself.

We have an extending ramp that we bought because Tosca has trouble getting into the back of our Expedition (and she’s way too big to lift), and we have set it up on the back steps to make it a little easier to get her in and out of the house.  She insists on going “4-wheeling” through the flower beds to go potty.  Makes it hard to help support her when she’s going over logs and behind shrubs, but the terrain is uneven enough that I don’t want her going around on her own quite yet.

Tosca has been very sweet with her.  No matter where Rio is, Tosca isn’t far away.  Zeffy, on the other hand, has pretty much left her alone since the initial butt sniffing when Rio got home.  I was a little nervous that I would have to monitor them a lot more closely when they’re together, but they seem to know that Rio needs to be treated gently.  Even at cookie time!  There was none of the usual jostling for pole position, they just all sat down nicely next to each other and waited.  What good girls!