Tuesday

Florida-style outdoor Christmas decorations

The temperature was in the low 40s this morning, topping out at 53, but at least it was sunny. I count this as our second day of winter. Temps will be back in the 70s by Thursday.

Toby Report

 

Toby showed steady improvement today until we took a short walk about 1:30 this afternoon when he encountered a setback.  

 

We're unsure what happened, probably a combination of things: 1) his 24-hour pain and inflammation medicine was running out; 2) we walked about 12 houses down the street, which was too far; 3) I stepped on some plastic debris in the gutter that startled him and he jumped; 4) Then he started sitting down and refusing to walk; then he got scared by the Amazon delivery van, then got spooked by a neighbor, turning a bit psychotic (behavior changes are a possible side effect of the medicine he is taking). John picked him up and carried him because Toby sat down and refused to budge; 5) when John set him down, Toby pulled in abject fright making a b-line to our house; 6) when we got to the edge of our lawn, I let go of the leash, fearing that the pulling would re-injury his leg. He ran to the door. When he got to there, he was lame.

 

Our theory is that he was in pain and wanted to get home, and the people and trucks were distracting him. Maybe he was sitting down to rest? Eventually, his adrenaline was driving him with conviction once there were no distractions and he could see his way home. 

We discussed what to do and waited to see how injured he was. We were out of medicine and needed to make a decision to call the vet for more before they closed, which is what we did after a few attempts of getting him to walk (The vet is closed for appointments on Tuesdays, but is open for medicine pick-ups). He looked as injured as he was the day after the initial injury. The vet gave us enough medicine for a few days, and he will call tomorrow to check on Toby's progress.

We are so disappointed. We had begun to put the house back together for normal living, looking forward to sleeping in a normal bed. We were beginning to exhale. We had to put the mattress back on the floor. Before we did, Toby had tried to jump on the bed and it didn't go well.

 

The vet had given us much hope yesterday after his examination of Toby. Our theory is that the doctor didn't notice any limp at Toby's exam yesterday because Toby was scared and had adrenaline running through his body. I know he was scared because he peed like a fire boat when I picked him up to get him to go inside with the vet tech for his appointment.

It's so hard to keep a puppy calm 24 hours a day. They have so much energy. 

We're hoping his skittishness and fear of noises and people will go away. At night it's especially intense. He won't go outside unless we both go with him and bribe him with treats. If a dog barks or a bird chirps or the bushes rustle, he turns and heads inside with certitude.

 

The medicine really makes a difference as far as his pain is concerned. He is walking almost normally tonight. 

 

We had our go-to comfort food tonight: Home Run Inn Cheese Pizza.

Miles walked: 2.2
Miles biked: 0