I am honestly inspired by my dog.  I am going to try my best to learn from him here.  He certainly is a dog who seems to have just decided, "yeah, that kind of sucked; but now it is time to move on."  And he has.

So, Thursday night he was so sad.  I really worried that he wold take a LONG time to bounce back.  Friday during the day I was still really supporting him with the sling; but he did pee (as I said in my last post).  He and I had to get on the road for me to get to to our closing for the house.  After that we got to the house before anyone else and I could not figure out how to get him settled and get the kennel out of the car and set up.  So I just took him over to a bench in the yard and we sat and let him rest.  For the next few hours he still wasn't too stable on his feet; but he also was looking really red around where the sling had been rubbing.  so I let him off of that again and he peed again. yay.

The next morning we got up and I let him walk without the sling again and he was doing more than just a few steps.  He was really getting the hang of it.  I called and talked to the vet about the irritation and him not wanting to pee on leash and they gave the OK to let him go on his own as long as I was right there to slow him down (he responds really well to verbal cues).  I also asked about not having him in the kennel as long as we were in the room with him and was given the OK for that; but little to no stairs, which I was very good with.

On Saturday I also started adding pumpkin to his food.  He finally pooped this morning.  

he now is pretty darn stable on his own, no need for the sling.  I have to really get on him to stop and wait for me before he tries stairs.

I had questioned taking him up to the new house for the weekend; but I now know it was the right thing to do.  We let my mom and step dad have the master bedroom for the next few weeks and we are sleeping in the room that will normall be theirs (master is on the top floor, their room is basement/verandah level).  so he had no stairs to deal with.  It was an easy walk for him to get to the lake, where he liked going to just lay and watch what was going on (the kids swimming, or the birds, whatever).  If we had stayed home he would have had to deal with 3 steps and a walk all of the way around the house every time he went in and out.

We go in tomorrow for him to get his drain removed.  It was supposed to be done on Saturday; but since we were out of town they said it would be fine to have it removed tomorrow (Monday).  

Oh, and BIGGEST NEWS of all – the biopsy results for the 2 lymph nodes they took came back clean!!!  They think we got it before it spread!!  

We are trying to come up with a name for the new house to honor Spencer (it is a cabin in the woods, lots of people there name their cabins  ).  So far suggestions have been "Spencer's Hill", "Red Dog's Run" (he is a red doberman) and my 5 year old's favorite – "Spencer's Castle".  Anyone have any suggestions?