Friday

 

This morning, John was on the phone so he closed the four sliding glass doors in the sun room so that he could talk in the bedroom without Toby interrupting him for attention. John typically closes only the bedroom slider, but Toby paws at the door so this time, John closed off the entire sun room to keep Toby away from the bedroom. When he got off the phone, he opened the bedroom slider as usual, then the two sliders off of the living room. Next, he turned and ran directly into the slider that goes into the dining room. He stubbed his toe and conked his nose and forehead on the glass.

I heard the noise and thought that last slider must be stuck or something and that he bumped it to get it loose. I couldn't imagine him running into it immediately after opening the others. But he did.

Poor thing. We went on the Internet to see what to do. Good news is he can move it and feel sensation in his toe, and it's warm to the touch. No skin was broken, and the bones are not askew. Probably just a bad bruise. We are putting ice on it and elevating it and having him stay off of it for at least 72 hours.

When we moved in, the previous owners had put stickers of baby bears holding multi-colored balloons and stickers of white baskets full of multi-colored flowers on the glass to remind them when the doors were closed. Of course we removed them. 

 Today was the first time we had those doors closed . . . and probably the last.

Bungee cord around the ice pack. 

Today was warm (72 degrees) but overcast all day. John said to take a picture so my readers will see that it's not always beautiful in Florida.

It sprinkled a little this afternoon, but that's all.  I don't think we saw any sunshine at all. (That stack of wood in the picture above is from the fig tree I cut down earlier in the week.)

We stopped giving Toby his Benadryl last night. His skin looked great this morning, his bumps were mostly gone, and the few remaining ones were very small.

Not long after taking these pictures, we noticed a new bump lower on his back. We're not sure what to do. The new bump is not from the harness because we haven't used it and it's too low on his back.

The Internet says that Benadryl doesn't cure the problem; rather it reduces inflammation in hopes that whatever caused the problem will be removed. If it's not the harness, we'll have to find what else it could be. It could be grass, food, or some other environmental factor. I think next we'll try to eliminate treats because we started giving him some peanut butter treats around the time of the first outbreak.

I made it to the grocery store, but not much else. I rode my bike and walked in the neighborhood because I wanted to be close to home in case it rained. John was laid up all day nursing his hurt toe. 

I did my best providing ice packs, pillows, and elevation, but honestly I'm a lousy nurse. John is infinitely better at care-taking than I am.

Miles walked: 7
Miles biked: 7.65