He's home and my God are we pleased.

Hubby and I were in the waiting room and we could hear from behind the consulting rooms lots of high pitched, encouraging cries of "good boy" and we knew it had to be him!

He doesn't look as bad as I had prepared myself for and his consultant even said to the nurses how much brighter he looked just in the few minutes we'd been with him.

He walked to the car and did well. We carried him from the car into the lounge and onto his bed because he hated our gravel drive when he had four legs so we didn't want to knock his confidence further. He laid himself down and was a bit stressed and panty, but we expected that and didn't smother him. Hubby went upstairs and shortly after Luther sat up. I thought he was going to turn around to get comfy, but after a few seconds he stood up. I could see his mind whirring to get balance and the next thing I know is he's hopped off his bed and taken the 3 steps over to me and laid down by my chair. It took every ounce of strength to not jump up to help him, but I watched him like a hawk and knew I had to let him work it out for himself.

Stitches come out next Wednesday and chemo starts in 2-3 weeks.

My wonderful darling boy. XXX

He had a settled night (I didn’t!) and I heard him move around once (I could hear his three feet pad on the wooden floor!) and then early this morning I heard him again so I went down because I thought he would probably need the toilet and he did.  He was standing in the kitchen when I got down, wagging that little stump of his!  I helped him outside, he did brilliantly with the three patio steps onto the grass and after doing his business, he lay down.  He’s eating, but only if I feed him from the spoon and I’m trying to work out if he’s just got used to being spoilt at the vets as they did that or if he’s still feeling a bit woe.  If you put his bowl in front of him, he’ll just look at it and then up at you.  I left him for a few minutes to go and feed the cats and when I came back he’d come back up the patio steps and was settled on the patio where it’s nice and cool. 

So, he’s done more in the 12 hours or so he’s been home than he did in 6 (not counting the day after his op because he was so drugged up) days at the vets, which is amazing and hopefully goes to show that he just needed to be home. 

We’ve still got a really long road ahead and no one knows what’s going to happen or when, but so far I’m so proud of him and we’re not regretting giving him this chance.  He’s on a restricted diet because he really needs to lose some weight, but hopefully with exercise as well, that shouldn’t be too hard and in a couple of weeks we're going to get him into the hydrotherapy pool. 

Well, 10 days on from the op and 3 days home and we're having a good day. Yesterday was a toughie and I had to take myself upstairs for a little sob.  For us in the UK, we've had what's really hot weather and Luther struggled in the heat on four legs, but having to distribute an extra 25% of his body weight over three has been so tough for him.  Plus, the night before last gave us THE worst thunder and lightening storm I've ever seen.  Luther is notoriously bad with thunder and normally I'm ok with letting him howl and cry through it with the mindset that by pandering to him, I'm giving him something to worry about. After being woken by the biggest clap of thunder I may have ever heard, I braced myself for the inevitable. Instead, I heard this whimper/cry ...so I went downstairs to find my 8 stone rottie quite literally trying to bury himself into the corner of the wall. Unable to walk away from that I ended up lying on a patch of carpet/scratchy door mat for about 2 hours having cleaned up terror induced dog pee from the hall waiting for my boy's heart rate to return to something a little more normal. 

He barely moved yesterday and even let out a couple of painful cries when he tried to get up, but we just let him do what he did or didn't want to do and put it down to having a bad day.

This morning, thankfully, he was much brighter and we've also had a few visitors, which he seemed to really enjoy.  He's been up and pottering around a lot more and seems to be getting the hang of it.  We were sitting outside this evening and he came out to join us so I just lay a towel down on the patio to make it more comfortable for him.

The 72 (I counted!) staples come out on Wednesday and he'll also have his first chemo.

Roxy continues to be awesome with him. I watched her this morning just about to barge past his amp side as he was standing up, reconsider, reverse and go around his other side totally avoiding him.

My favourite saying this week is "it's better to hop on three legs than to limp on four"!

The pic of him standing was taken as he decided to take a trip outside, which involves a step down from the kitchen into the utility room and three steps down from the patio onto the grass. All taken with growing confidence and Luther - style grace!

I've started to give him a massage to help ease his muscles and he loves it! If I stop, you can see his left shoulder move where he would be pawing me for more if he still had his leg.

He seems quieter this morning again, but like you say, his muscles will be a little sore especially from being more active yesterday.

The only thing I'm a little worried about is his eating. He still won't get up for his meals and I've ended up taking them to him. Yesterday morning was the first time he took a few mouthfuls from the bowl I'd left down, but that was only because he was already in the room where I feed them.

This morning I'm being a bit tougher and not taking it to him. He'll have to get up eventually. Unfortunately though I can't leave his food down because Roxy will eat it!

Do you think this is him being clever and enjoying being fed or is he really not into eating unless it's forced upon him?