Ellie did it! When we went to West Hills yesterday to have urine sucked out of her for culturing Ellie hopped up on the scale, sat right down, and…..drum roll please……..she weighed in at 78.8 pounds! That’s right! Goal weight achieved. Far out freakin’ fantastic! What this means is that she has dropped a total of 12 pounds since she originally injured herself the first week of February and she has dropped 8 pounds since we switched her care to West Hills this past spring. No Jenny Craig, no Weight Watchers, no Slim Fast just plain old hard work and RD food. It was a happy moment for our little tribe and we celebrated by feeding Ellie a Six Dollar burger and milk shake from Carl’s Jr. (just kidding)
Prior to taking Ellie to West Hills for pee extraction I received a call from Dr. Ahmsberry. I tell you, the fact that he takes time out of his day to check up on Ellie every third day is just incredible and I cannot say enough about West Hills Animal Hospital and their dedication to pets and owners. I explained to him that she was feeling and acting just phenomenal since being on the Baytril. He said that this indicates that she was probably really struggling with the cooties and, like most animals, will not typically show you just how crappy they are feeling. I guess animals tend to be rather stoic in that department. Maybe I should take Ellie to a pet psychiatrist so that we can explore the spider webs and deep recesses of her mind to find out why she hides her feelings. You know, get her to “talk about her feelings” and maybe have a touch of intervention. Maybe I have scarred her by making her aid and abet whilst I poach fruit from lawns on our morning walks. Or, maybe the fact that she watches me snatch her poop up in plastic bags has provided her some canine form of empowerment that has manifested itself into some kind of twisted emotional maelstrom. We may never know. Actually, who cares? We bombarded the pee bugs with drugs and it seems to be working. In the words of Lewis and Clark, “…Oh, the joy.”
Ellie’s return to normalcy, well, her version of normalcy, is analogous to Clark Kent running to the phone booth, dropping the suit and putting on the cape, then re-emerging as a supercharged being. Her head is up, shoulders are broad, tail wagging like hummingbird wings, and she moves around like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I just love that dog and now that tomorrow marks 17 weeks of surgical recovery and approximately 14 million dollars in veterinary bills I can say resoundingly that it is well worth the coin and effort. Our buddy and best friend is back!
The biggest obstacle for me continues to be pulling in my own reins so that we just stay slow and steady with her continued rehabilitation. The temptation to go for a one hour hike or long drives in the Jeep is always front and center in my beady little head. I want to rough-house and roll around with that dog like we always did and turn her loose in her favorite park so she can hunt tennis balls in the bushes. Actually, she has had a slight return to tennis ball hunting albeit very monitored and fairly subdued. When we allow her to do this she acts like an ex-smoker sitting next to a pack of Camel Unfiltered. You can see her fighting the temptation to go nutsy-fago and just dive head first into the shrubbery like some crazed kid bobbing for apples at Halloween. That’s our Ellie.
