Recouperation Time - Help Us All!

Who ever said that crate training a dog was easy should be shot! When Lily was a puppy, she lasted only a week in her crate. To be perfectly honest, I guess I should say Rolf and I only lasted a week with all that whining and crying going on. Even the best ear plugs in the world didn't help.

Lily is home and we are delighted!!!!! We all know it will be a long recovery period for her but are so thankful that she is not experiencing any more nerve pain and is doing well considering she just had major surgery.

So here we go again with "crate training 101." It is not going over well. Not well at all. No one is getting any sleep. Rolf, Lily and myself are miserable. I really can't blame her I guess. All she is use to is sleeping in the big bed with us. Now to put her in "jail" just doesn't seem right to any of us. Nothing we can do about it, I know that. Doesn't make it any easier tho. I know that Rolf really needs his sleep as he is the one who has to get up early in the morning to go to work. I'm grateful that I am home all day. I decided to take Lily downstairs wth me and let her lay on the new couch with me.
Good thing we bought a new couch a few months ago. It's large and in charge - Ha! Nice and hard and a great place for Lily to lay. We sit on Daddy's side of the couch so I can recline back and close my eyes. Gotta stay awake, gotta stay awake! I'm worried that IF I fall asleep, Lily will escape the Warden. This sleeping arrangement seems to be working fairly well. I stay awake while Lily sleeps. At least it's working out well for someone. She is content, quiet and sleeping well.

Unfortunately, because Rolf and I are so sick, I had to stop laying on the couch with her at night and just had to get some real sleep. Her surgeon prescribed some pills that we give Lily an hour before bedtime. By the time her Daddy carries her upstairs and crates her, she is fast asleep. Lily Belle, do you know that when you are in your crate fast asleep, Daddy sleeps with his back up against the wires to your crate? He is one great Daddy!!

I gotta give a shout out to the Greenies Company. They make a wonderful product called Pill Pocket's. Nice stinky & tasty dog treats with a hole in the middle where you stuff the medicine. Lily loves them! I don't think she even chews them, they just go down whole. What a great method for medicating your pet. They are expensive but well worth the bucks. It has really saved us a lot of aggrevation.

I created a spreadsheet to track all of her medicines and when to dose them. She is on 3 different type of pills, is currently wearing a pain patch on her back and gets a sprinkle of probiotics on her food. Poor little girl is like a junkie with Mommy being her supplier. She is doing well on all of these med's and so far no stomach upsets.  Eventually we have to wean her off all of these, but that will be over a 1 month period.

Did I mention that she is showing all of her nakedness? She is shaved in so many spots; think it's 5 areas. For a small little boogaloo, that's a lot!

Lily's Nakedness

We have to carry her everywhere which we don't mind. She has been great about not walking around outside when doing her business. She is very good about listening to her 'stay' and 'down' command's. I guess she did pay attention in school.

My Dad (aka Grandpa) has been a big help also. He will sit with Lily on the couch so that I can get some stuff done around the house. The only problem is, he falls asleep with Lily.

Grandpa fast asleep with Lily

I guess at almost 87 years old, I should have expected that one! I do love the photo though of them catching some Zzzzzz's together.