Thank You Very Much Coopsdad !!!

  Thanks everyone! Having another great day! Still no drainage. I have been a little paranoid that it will come back but I don't think it will.Right now Valentina is kicking her legs like crazy having a doggie dream. I have never seen a Dog dream like her. Other Dogs that I have had may have done a little twitching and maybe a muffled bark in their sleep but watching Valentina dream is so hilarious sometimes. She is so wild in her sleep. She kicks her legs all over the place sometimes kicking the wall. Her legs will be just a going like she is really running. It can be quite noisy too. Sometimes I hear the racket all the way upstairs. Oh and by the way I can't believe it but I slept in my bed for the first time since she came home from the hospital the second time. It was wonderful. I almost changed my mind because I had just gotten so used to sleeping next to her it felt very strange to leave her downstairs by herself. It was kind of like when I had a baby that whole recovery thing. Not getting much sleep,checking on her in the night ,cleaning up all the drainage was kind of like changing diapers. The special hand feeding and all that other stuff. But last night I finally felt like she would be ok without me. During the time with all the complications there was nothing that would convince me to sleep upstairs away from her. And I rarely left her at all during that whole time. I had such an overwhelming protective instinct that all I could do was stay by her side. I didn't care how long it took, I was going nowhere!! People tried to convince me that she would be ok if I left her alone for a while but I wouldn't listen. I am quite glad that I did what I did because I think that is what helped her recover. She knew that I was there for her no matter what.It was a very hard time but I would do it again. Anything for her. Today I did leave the house for about 4 hours. It was my husbands day off and he was around to keep an eye on her. She does not need to be constantly supervised anymore! So I had a really fun time with my daughter taking her to the mall school shopping. We really needed to spend some time together. The past 5 weeks has really been hard on her too since all of my attention has been on Valentina. She tried to understand but after a while it really got to her. So it was really great to spend a day with her. She is 11 and will be going to middle school for the first time this year so it was fun to help her find her new style. We even ate junk food at the mall which we rarely do. We normally never eat outside of the house and we eat really healthy. She was so surprised when I said "Hey ,Wanna get some cheeseburgers and fries?". She was like "Really? I've never seen you eat food like this before. You are being really fun today Mom!!"  Right now she is trying on her clothes and giving her Dad, sister and I a fashion show. As you can tell I have had a good day! I couldn't wait to get home to give Valentina lots of hugs and kisses. After I got home I took her out for a potty break and I had a hard time getting her to come back in the house. She just loves going outside so she can observe the neighborhood. One of her favorite things to do is to just stand in one spot and look out into the distance taking in everything. I heard some Tripawds have trouble standing in one spot but she doesn't. She doesn't even keep doing that hopping thing while standing in place. She balances really well. And she also can really run fast now.It really is amazing to see a Dog go through this surgery and even with complications perservere through it all and still with a wagging tail and a smile on her face. It is truly remarkable! I am looking so forward to crawling into my bed tonite after all that shopping. I am worn out! 

Valentina is still doing Great!! She has another vet appt tomorrow. I am hoping that they will tell me that I don't have to bring her back for a while. I am sick of going there. Today Valentina wanted to go out into the fenced in dog yard that we have with her sister dog Emalee. I have been taking Valentina out in the front yard to go potty because she doesn't have to walk as far and the steps are kind of low and easy for her to get down. So I have to take the dogs out separately. Our front yard grass is already turning yellow from Val. Well today is the first time that she tried to go out with Emalee. I felt really bad but I didn't let her go because the steps to get to the dog yard are kind of steep and I wasn't sure she could get down them ok. And she was already tired because I had just taken her out in the front yard and she wanted to stay out there forever. Maybe after a little while longer I will see if she can get down those steps. But I was happy to see that she wanted to be a part of the old routine. Her incision looks completely healed and it has not drained a drop since her last irrigation on Monday and the only reason that it did that day was because they put fluid in it. I'm hoping that they don't do an irrigation tomorrow because to me it looks totally closed up.