No babies for Elsa

Elsa was spayed yesterday.  I took her in for 8:30 and had a quick visit with the vet before leaving her. In all of my life I have never had a dog that wagged at the vet.  Each and everyone of my dogs had their own way of displaying the terror that they felt when they had to go to the Veterinarians.  Almost all have shaken in fear, tried to climb inside of me or left their body mentally.  Luke growls and carries on trying to keep everyone at bay; but not Elsa, she loves everyone.  She nearly beat me half to death with her tail as she met each tech and then finally the vet.

I hated to leave her but after her clean bill of health it was time for Elsa to head to the back without me.  I shouldn't have worried at all, she was still wagging as she strut to the back and never even checked to see if I was coming.  No she was fine and seemingly having quite a good time.  I felt good, all the staff there are wonderful.  They give off a very caring vibe which surely makes an owner feel good.  So off I went to wait and worry until I got the call.

That call came just before noon "she's fine," the Vet told me.  She'd done great and was sitting up already.  We discussed a bit of when to pick her up and things I would need to know for the first night.  I let out a huge sigh of relief knowing it was done and she was fine.  We were to pick her up at 5:30 so until then I had to do all my running around for the week.

There is always a moment of sadness when I have one of my amazing dogs altered.  I remember the day I had Tilley spayed, I'd had moments of regret.  She was amazing and would have produced fabulous puppies.  Elsa is an exceptional dog and she too would have had some pretty spectacular babies.  I have no doubt that there would have been a line up of people wanting one.  But I will let the breeders do their job and I will do mine.  Elsa's full sister will be having puppies and those are the same genes that Elsa has.

Steve came home early to help pick her up.  We brought her home on a blanket in the back of the SUV along side me.  I'd already set up our huge LL Bean bed in the family room and she lay down there as soon as we walked in.  Luke came down and gave her the once over.  It was so cute to see him wagging madly as he checked her out.  Then he lay on the bed beside her and put his head down, happy she was home.  In the afternoon I had headed over to the medical supply shop to get some guaze; my idea was to wrap her stomach in gauze at night in case she decided to lick her incision.  What I found was stretchy gauze tubing.  I chose a piece that I thought would be big enough to go around Elsa and the above image is that, with holes cut in it for legs and tail.

At 9:00 we decided to call it a night.  I was sure that we'd be up during the night and we are up at 5:00 every morning.  I grabbed Elsa into my arms and as I carefully placed my foot on each step I was hit with an emotional moment.  It hadn't been that long since I'd been carrying Tilley up these same steps.  I'd done it for months and months.  Realizing how different Elsa felt from Tilley I tried to shake the thoughts away and got back on track.

So that she would not jump on our bed over night we set up the ex-pen.  She wasn't thrilled about it but it isn't that long since she slept in the ex-pen so she quickly settled in for the night. She awoke at 3:30 this morning and I took her out for a much needed pee.  Having not eaten but drunk a lot of water plus the fluids at the vets she really needed to go.  She had gone before bed as well.  Of course she went back to sleep after she went out, me?  Nope.

She has yet to eat, I'll work on that today.  I'm hoping that once she is up and moving around that she will feel some better.  She's a sad girl this morning though.  But as I try to type this she is draped across my lap making her a bit happier.  So here I will sit for some time as she rests quietly.  I was told 10-14 days of quiet, this is going to be a challenge once she is feeling better.  But for now she is not feeling great and is just happy to be home and with Mom.

Thank you to all the staff at Canyon Animal Hospital for taking such great care of Elsa.  And special thanks to Dr. Brower.

Have a great day everyone.