Straydog UPDATE posted MONDAY 11/18/02 at 10:07 p.m.

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

MONDAY NOVEMBER 18 2002

Lassie stays at the clinic for surgery

     Little Lassie is about six years old, and she's a small (tho a bit plump) mixed breed dog, with wavy brown and white fur, who looks as if she has some Collie in her--hence the name Lassie. She shares a kennel with her best friend, Sandy, a Shepherd mix.

     We've all noticed two lumps on Lassie recently which we felt needed to be looked at by our vet. The lump at the back of her neck is big but soft. The second lump is the one that has me concerned. It's smaller, and hard, and looks like a super big wart. This "super big wart" is located near the top of her shoulder. Hopefully it's just that--a super big wart.

     When our doctor examined Lassie, he thought it best to do a biopsy on the small, hard lump and said that while Lassie was under the anesthetic, he would check on the bigger lump as well.

     Dr. Morton scheduled Lassie's surgery for this afternoon and said I'd be able to pick her up tomorrow. Then it will be a few days before the results of the biopsy come back.

While at the vet clinic with Lassie, I checked on Frosty the Husky

     After the doctor took Lassie to the hospital annex to await the surgery, he had the vet tech, Donna, bring Frosty to me so I could see how she was getting along.

     While I was waiting to see Frosty, I imagined that when Donna walked the injured dog down the long hallway, Frosty would be holding her wounded leg up off the floor as she limped along slowly at Donna's side with Donna guiding her to the examining room where I was waiting.

How wrong I was!

     I was standing in the doorway of the room looking down the hallway waiting to see Frosty, when suddenly Donna and Frosty came almost flying around the corner with Frosty in the lead (wearing a big E-Collar) using all four legs as she strained hard at the leash trying to run, while Donna was pulling just as hard to keep Frosty from running! It was very obvious that Frosty is feeling good! And she was putting some weight on her wounded leg.

     "Her name should be Spirit!" Donna announced when they got to the room. "This girl is full of spirit!"

     Frosty and I had a nice visit while Dr. Morton explained that her leg appeared to be healing just fine. He said she could come home with me, but we would need to keep her inside and very quiet for the next month or so while her leg continues to heal.

     To keep Frosty inside will take quite a bit of rearranging in our already jam-packed-full living room, but we've done it before (for Susie and Julie among others). It will just take a few days to get a big kennel ready (in our living room) for Frosty. I'll pick her up as soon as we're got her inside kennel ready.

Puppy Jimmy plays with Puppy Leo

     Since three of Freckles' puppies have been adopted, little Leo has been a stay-at-home fellow with only his blind mom to play with. In order to keep Leo socialized so that he'll grow up to be friendly to all dogs (and so that he can have a puppy friend for a playmate now), we put Leo and his neighboring puppy friend, Jimmy (who now rooms with Pups Dakota and Perry) together several times a day so they can play together.

     We can't put Leo in with all three boys because they are all bigger than Leo, and the three of them together would be too rough on the little tyke. Jimmy is the quietest of the bunch, and he and Leo had a fun time playing together most of this afternoon while Leo's mom, Freckles, snoozed.