Leo is a tough little guy and there were no complications as he continued to heal. In fact, I think he was in better shape after his surgery. Because I wanted to keep King exhausted to try and keep him from rough-housing with Leo, I took him for lots of walks and even a few short runs. Needless to say, Leo was not going to let himself be left out of anything and he insisted on accompanying King and I for every walk. On a day that I wasn’t working, that could mean 15 km to 20 km over the course of the day and Leo was right there, cone and all.
At last, it was stitch out day. I took Leo to our vet’s office to have the stitches removed rather than deal with the hassle of the specialist again. They took Leo into the back and when he emerged a few minutes later, he bounced back to me and I swear that he had a huge smile on his face.
We had to go for a celebratory hike in the nearby country preserve where Leo had his first post-cone roll. Then another. And another.
After the almost mandatory visit to the pet store, I decided to go to The Second Wedge for a lovely beverage. I knew the minute that I walked inside, something was wrong and I was told that the brewery was closed for a private function. Darn. As I was apologizing for intruding, King picked up the dog bed next to the door that belonged to Sadie, The Second Wedge’s resident brewery dog. I say belonged because in the blink of an eye, King had torn it open and was staring at me, his stump wagging with a big wad of fluff stuck to his nose. What the heck is that about?! I apologized even more as I pulled my mutts outside which was when I noticed the sign on the door. Yup, they were closed.
I felt so horrible about the bed that I went and bought a new one for Sadie. Soon I was back knocking at the door, yet again apologizing for interrupting them just long enough to thrust the bed inside before I returned to the car.
With plenty of time left in the day, I figured it would be as good a time as any to see how King would take to a tent. I had wanted to wait until Leo was no longer wearing a cone to make the introduction easier in such close space. King watched the whole process very intently and seemed to be confused with all the flapping material that slowly took shape. Leo was eagerly watching and as soon as I crawled out, I turned to see that he had snuck inside. I brought King into the tent, we all sat down, and soon he was sprawled out on the pads. I’d call that a win.
The following day, I had wanted to do something special for Leo and since I had slept in way later than I had planned (my bad), and Jack was sore from our hike the day before, we stayed close to home. One of my favourite trail systems is only ten minutes down the road so we went to enjoy the first signs of spring. Trilliums were springing up but not quite blooming with yellow trout lilies popping up among the white flowers of some other plant (if anyone knows what they are, I’d love to find out). Oddly enough, the dogs didn’t seem to notice all the garter snakes that slithered off the trail as we passed by.
After the dogs were sufficiently tired, we went back home and I packed up a classy picnic of dog cookies with liverwurst, little cubes of cheese, and some blue cheese and ice wine for me. The dogs played in the river before we went to the blanket I had spread out under a tree and doled out little treats. We sat there and enjoyed the sun until they had stopped playing and curled up next to me.
Finally, things are getting back to normal.