After the last couple of days events, our oncologist wanted to see Rio, so we went to see Dr. Sarah this morning and… and we are OKAY! Good vitals, the appetite is back (with a vengeance, I might add) and her energy level is much, much better. We even played ball out in the yard for a teeny bit today (it was so, so nice and it’s been such a long, cold, grey winter).
And (shout out for the Woo), it’s been two months Continue reading
It’s APRIL! Rio’s birth month!!!! We don’t know what day, but she was about 7 or 8 weeks old when I got her on Father’s Day, 2000. I still remember that little face. I tried to walk away. I actually decided I couldn’t take her (we were selling our house and didn’t have a clue where we would live while we built our new house). But my friend said, “you can’t leave without saying goodbye to the puppy.” I convinced myself I was strong enough, but I knew deep down that if I went back to “say goodbye,” I would be taking that tiny girl home.
Yesterday was my birthday, and the best present of all was a happy Woo. Her dad sent her in to do a little post-breakfast snuggle wearing a festive ribbon on her harness. My present was a book of Rio. Her dad had collected all the great Rio pictures from the day I brought her home to post-surgery, and compiled them into an iPhoto book. We had made a couple of these books before — one of all of our Halloween party guests, and one for the in-laws 25 wedding anniversary. Apple really does a nice job, and they’re a great memento without the headache of trying to put together a photo album. They are hardbound and the pages are glossy, and you can easily add captions and text to the pages as well. And so the legendary Story of Woo will live on now in print.
Rio has a vet appointment this afternoon. We’re going to check white blood count and have the doctor take a look at her knee. She’s been having a bit of difficulty with it — it’s been swollen and at times it simply collapses under her. Hoping, hoping that it’s just tired from carrying all the load and not something like a torn ligament.
Rio is definitely starting to get her old “rock head” back. We had been limiting the climbs to the second floor to when she was wearing her harness and could be assisted up the steps, but yesterday she decided she was tired of not going upstairs when she felt like it. Not only did she climb the stairs unassisted and without any permission at all, she did it twice. I think she thought maybe her dad had food up there that he wanted to share with her. She also went walkabout in the yard and ran up the driveway a couple of times (our driveway is about 300 feet long) to “greet” the neighbors. Today, we played a little ball outside with Tosca and Zephyr… I have to remember to throw low for Rio, because she is used to leaping up for the ball, and she’s fallen a couple of times trying to jump since the surgery. We’re both learning what she’s capable of, but she seems to want to go at a little faster pace than me! She is definitely a tough old bird!
Rio underwent the amputation surgery yesterday, February 8. I’d been having a really hard time with the idea of her losing her leg, and I wasn’t positive even as we went to our appointment with the surgeon if I was going to go through with it. I’d been trying to think about it from the angle of “if it was elsewhere on her body, what would I do?”. If it was on her back or her haunches or some other easily operable spot, the surgery would have been scheduled within hours of the diagnosis, so what was my problem? The surgery was imperative if she was going to survive this particular tumor. Continue reading