Cee Gee said
I so appreciate that you understand I can both cry and have an upbeat expectation for Frankie’s future. On the one occasion I cried with a friend, her impulse was to explain it will be ok and get me to stop the tears. Hey, I’m all about knowing he will figure it out and be happy, happy. But I’m trying to be honest (esp as a retired nurse who knows) that this waiting and his recovery will be challenging. 

I thought my other 15 yo cat was maybe in winter behavior when she started snuggling with him recently. Today I am certain that she knows something is off. So she will be on his support team after surgery.

Any advice or anything I should know about the first 48 hrs after coming home?

  

Yes very understandable! I was the exact same way I cried to my dad,sister,cousin, my nana everyone I’m close to. Listen to your friend it will all be okay, just remember you’re doing this to give him a better quality of life whatever the reason for amputation may be. Yes he will figure everything out but remember baby steps matter! He will be happy and healthy and that’s all we as owners could want for our fur babies! It will be difficult the first few days but you’ll get used to the new routine in no time:) I’d say give it 3-5 days it’ll be like nothing has changed.

Thats great! My 13 year old dog scruffy who pablo grew up with was the exact same. Before pablo left he was attached to him at the hip! When Pablo got back I kept them separate for the first 24hrs to let Pablo settle in but after that I let scruffy see pablo (while I supervised). I can HONESTLY say I’ve never seen scruffy so calm before (scruffy has the personality of a hyperactive puppy). Since then scruffy has been watching pablo and making sure the other pets don’t bother him or get too close. But of course for the first at least 14 days Frankie should be supervised while with other pets if they’re not calm and careful (scruffy is allowed to stay with Pablo as he’s very gentle when people/pets are hurt and scruffy LOVES small pets he thinks they’re his “babys” so he’s very gentle with everything, he was even careful with me when I had surgery and my dad when he had his).

My tips are

-get some sleep before kitty goes (listen to hollly and Jackie when they tell you this you’ll be happy you listened!)

-try to find litter that won’t stick to his incision two good ones are wood stove pellets or recycled paper cat litter

-keep puppy pads around for an accident

-a dog pen could be a good idea with a kennel in it incase kitty doesn’t want to be caged but that way he’s still in a controlled environment (that’s just what I did for Pablo totally optional!)