Last Day of Crate Rest!!!!!!!!!!

Today is (hopefully) Riley’s last full day of crate rest!  Hooray!  I can’t believe we’ve made it 8 weeks post-op!  Her follow-up appointment with X-rays is tomorrow morning at 9:00.  I’m hoping they’ll be able to take the X-rays without sedating her (if they have to sedate her, I have to leave her there for most of the day…), but who am I kidding…they’ll probably sedate her because she acts like she’s had a lobotomy or something when she goes to the vet!!  🙂  So say a little prayer that she doesn’t act too silly tomorrow and can have her X-rays done without sedation.  I mean, really, how hard is it to keep a young cattle dog still for a few seconds???  😉

With all this surgery/crate rest this year, I didn’t have time to sign Riley up for the dog Christmas Card Exchange that we did last year.  And I definitely didn’t have time to send out cards!  (Even though I got a nice professional shot of her in her Christmas bandana back in June…).  So we were surprised to get two Christmas cards from our bloggie friends in the mail yesterday!  We got one from our good friend Hound Girl and one from our friend Miss Barbara at If I Didn’t Have a Sense of Humor.  If you are living under a rock and haven’t read either of their blogs, check them out!  Hound Girl has Riley’s twin from another mother, Haylie, who also has hip dysplasia and is toy-obsessed and her brother, Fred, a Bloodhound, is training to be a Therapy Dog.  And Miss Barbara’s blog is just plain funny.  Enough said.

Haylie and Fred’s card.

Trixie, Minnie, and Jeep must have helped Miss Barbara out with her cards because Riley was most interested in sniffing their card!

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to post a crate-less picture of Riley!!  I just can’t wait to snuggle with her again and love on her.  I open the door to her crate and stick myself halfway in there to love on her right now, but it’ll be nice to do it without all the metal bars around!  🙂

My New Favorite Cleaning Tool

We’ve had this LeBistro Waterer for about 2 years or so–or since Riley was a puppy, so maybe 2.5 years.  I love it because I don’t have to constantly refill a water bowl all day long, but I hate how it gets dirty and is a weird shape so is hard to clean.

Enter Q-tips Precision Tips!  They are the perfect fit to get in the weird corners of the waterer and to get in the little hole that the water comes through!

I will say it is extra yucky/furry because only Chloe has been drinking out of this bowl while Riley’s been crated, so it takes her about 3 times as long to empty it.

New Q-tips Precision Tips!  They have a pointed end to get down in the corners easily.

These are the Precision Tips I’m talking about.

Eww.

Getting it all cleaned up!

The waterer is now spotless and refilled/refreshed!  All ready for Riley to get off of crate rest on Wednesday morning!!!!!

See, all fresh and clean!

Here’s Riley getting a little bit of loving from Grandma–who is actually going to be a REAL Grandma!  Aunt Baddy is going to have a two-legger, human baby!!!!!!!!!!

I would definitely suggest buying a package of these Q-tips Precision Tips–they would be so useful around the house and with your pets, especially if you have one of these LeBistro Waterers like we do that are hard to keep clean.  You could also clean the creases on your dog’s face if they have a smooshed face like Riley’s Boxer cousins, Daisy and Highway.  Or, if your dog is accident-prone like a certain young Cattle Dog I know, you can apply ointments to their cuts and scrapes or broken nails.

***I was provided with Q-tips cotton swabs® and information about the product by RocketXL. All opinions are 100% my own.***

One More Week!

One more week until Riley’s 8 week follow-up appointment after her TPLO knee surgery.  Hopefully she’ll get off of strict crate rest and be allowed to roam the house.  I read online somewhere that you have to keep your dog from running and jumping for 16 weeks…shoot me now!  I’m hoping her X-rays will show that her bone is 100% healed and she’ll be able to slowly work back up to normal activity.  We’ve followed all the instructions to a T, so we’ll see if all of our hard work has paid off.

Her appointment is next Wednesday, December 14th, at 9:00 AM.  I can’t wait to see how well she’s healing because in MY humble opinion, she’s doing great!

Thanks to Miss Barbara and the OP Pack for giving this Monkey Mark toy to Riley!  She has enjoyed the heck out of it and has chewed it into shreds that she STILL likes to play with.  She likes to lay her head on it when she’s sleeping.

Attempting to get a belly rub from Grandma!

“Ah, that feels good!  Thanks, Grandma!”

Continue to keep your paws crossed for Riley’s recovery!  She’s doing great so far and we hope she can be freed of the crate next Wednesday.