Our first COC guide dog puppy, Tiller (now 8), injured her cranial cruciate ligament (center of the knee) about a month ago. We tried the wait-and-see method as opposed to surgery and began to see some improvement over the next several weeks. She took a turn for the worse one day last week and had surgery to repair the fully torn ligament on Friday. To illustrate:
Ouch!
So, while she is recovering here at home, Duchess (our second COC guide dog puppy, now 5) is staying with one CCI friend/puppy (Heather & Naylor) and Stinson is staying with another CCI friend/puppy (Linda & Sorley) for the next several days. It's terribly quiet around here and I miss Stinson & Duchess, but the Orthopedic Veterinarian indicated the success rate for multi-dog households was much lower for this surgery.
Thankfully, our friend Linda and CCI Puppy Sorley were available to take Stinson for awhile. He's been there 2 days and already been to a high school football game (open, metal steps! and a cannon!) & church, as well as several restaurants. Great exposures.
A shot of Stinson the day before I dropped him at Linda's, being a bad boy in the car - sometimes he jumps up on the seat before I have a chance to get around the car to let him out. We had been working on this, but still need work, apparently!
No, I'm not going to leave you, Stinson!
Last week, brand new CCI Puppy Naylor came over for a play date with Stinson. They adore each other and love to play - constantly.
Naylor: What are we doing now, Stinson?
Long, hard nap, after several hours of playing together - Naylor is snuggled under Stinson's chin.
A quick email from Heather indicating she LOVES Duchess, along with a picture of 'The Queen' sleeping in Heather's bed. She slept in bed, one paw on Heather, all night long. That little stinker worms her way into everyone's heart.
Snoozing on the bed at Heather's...making herself right at home.
Things are very quiet here now - at least for the next several days. Duchess will be back home, with 11 week old CCI Puppy Naylor, for several days late this week as I puppy sit for Heather. CCI folks are like that - stepping up when needed without hesitation. Just love this bunch of people.
One last shot of Stinson, creatively stretching into Tiller, before her surgery. She just barely tolerates such contact, but she's nice about it.
Um, pardon me.
So, Stinson turned 7 months old this week and we're just a year away from his return to Advanced Training at CCI in Orlando. It will be here in a flash and I'll be stunned, as always - shocked that I didn't pay closer attention to how much time was passing, again. Sternly admonishing myself that I didn't post to the blog every two weeks, as planned. And, that I didn't take enough great photos for the Matriculation Ceremony slide show. And, that I should have done more, gone more places, 'proofed' him more on all of his commands, hugged him more, let him kiss me more and taken more time to slow down and really take it all in. I'm going to try to remember that, this time.
