Originally I was going to post this after a related podcast, but some phone and other challenges really messed up my schedule so the two are out of order. It doesn’t matter contentwise, except that I make a reference in the podcast to posting more details about Whit at some later date. Yeah, I know: more evidence of how anal I am!
Having once again proven that, let me begin by saying that Whit had his surgery last week and did extremely well. Even though neither picture is that great, the pre-opt Whit on the left and the post-op Whit on the right pretty much sum up the improvement. He’s definitely more interested in what’s going on around him now.
Whit had the surgery Wednesday morning and I picked him up about 24-hours later. If you couldn’t see his row of staples, you’d never know that anything was wrong with him. He’s also gaining weight. Whew!
Something I want to mention, in addition to the excellent surgical skills of veterinarian Andrea Neiley, that has meant a lot to Whit and me is a gift from a client, Susan Sibulkin. She sent Whit a fleece covered pillow made by a friend of hers that he loves. The day it arrived, I put it on top of the folded rug he’d already claimed and he immediately claimed it, too. It’s become his favorite sleeping place and I’m sure it’s helping his recovery.
However, this is not any ordinary pet pillow. At each corner there’s a sturdy clip,
an ingenious addition that enables you to snap the pillow into a crate to form a hammock. I know that Whit would love this, too, but I haven’t tried it because I know the dogs would also think it was the best thing since sliced bread. His treasure’s current location enables him to easily fend off any potential pillow-swipers with a well-placed swat. But it would be much harder if not impossible for him to dislodge any dog who claimed his hammock in a crate.
Whit is on no medication because only one lobe of his thyroid gland was involved and so far the other half seems to be functioning normally. The mass from the other has been sent in for analysis and the results will give us a better idea of what lies ahead for him. But for now, peace and recovery reign as fall descends, leaves turn, birds migrate, and I harvest the infamous squash and get ready for a seminar here next weekend.
