Sunday the 1st. February.
9:15 pm
I did a Google search on how to get clotted blood out of fur. Hydrogen Peroxide was the answer, which was handy – I had a brand new big bottle. I used a watered-down 50/50 solution and tried cleaning Buddy’s fur. He was such a champ, sitting patiently, not shaking around, letting me try to clean his fur. It cleaned out a bit. I will try again in the morning, after the scabs have had some time to degrade. After, we had some hand-fed wet Cesar. He enjoyed that. He’s having trouble eating with the cone.
I completely forgot that I bought the low-profile silicone bowls for when Bubba had the cone and trouble eating, just sitting in the backpack. I will use those tomorrow, so Buddy can feed himself easier.
I applied the 3rd dose of the ointment, again he was a total trooper, not resisting at all. Tomorrow I’ll reduce to 2/day.
5:30 pm
Took Buddy out for one quick bathroom run after dinner. Bubba didn’t want to go. We stopped once on the way out of the complex, and once on the path to PCH, then came right home. No longer than 10 minutes. He pooped.
1:30 pm
Couldn’t get the guys to get up to walk. Buddy ran away, stopped at the side of an empty bed, looked across the room at Bubba in the piano bed. Bubba didn’t move, and Buddy took that as a “not walking” cue and jumped into the other bed for safety. So I did the mail run.
Mail: Lots of mail, nothing for Jeremy.
UPS Store: 2 packages, no mail.
Then went to Ralph’s and got two packs of roast beef. There will be a need for a chicken run, probably Wednesday, then all good for the rest of the trip.
11:30 am
Checked on the guys. Buddy greeted me at the door and we had cone-based gridlock again. He backed off to run and get his bunny from the basket. I threw it once for him, just to the other side of the dining room, and I didn’t do any gate keeping, so he could run back in the middle of the space, rather than try to navigate the cone around corners and furniture. He came back, dropped the bunny and jumped into his bed. I think I woke him coming up the stairs. Bubba was crashed out in the fireplace bed. He watched Buddy and I play fetch a little, then put his head back down to sleep. Buddy looked tired – he probably didn’t sleep all that great.
I spent a couple of minutes scratching behind ears, and then chins – at his direction (by way of head shifting). I didn’t think about the sides of the jaw and chin. I wish my brush could fit in there. I’ll see if I can find a small wire brush at the store that would work.
It was very comfortable in the house. The fans and open deck were working well, and it was slightly cooler today, with more breeze.
I will check on them for a walk after the UPS Store run.
8:30 am
It took a bit of coaxing the guys against each other, but we got out for a walk. Neither, independently, wanted to walk. But I managed to get them close to the front door. Once I put Buddy’s leash on, Bubba decided it was walk time. Then poor Bubba get beat up a little. Buddy got excited about walking, and went to get in Bubba’s face, assaulting him with the cone, while pinning him against the front closet door with no easy escape. So I reached down to move the cone away from his face, unthinkingly letting go of his unhooked leash, which then swung like a pendulum and the clasp hit him in the side of the head, just after I got the cone out of the way. None of these things were hard enough to even warrant a small yelp, but it still seemed sad.
We went over to the mailbox. In normal fashion, Buddy peeded – a lot – on the way to the mailboxes, and then pooped – a lot – at the mailboxes. What a trooper he is. We went across the street for a long stroll. We got passed by Yvette and Mike 3 times, as they took a nice relaxing walk that was at a breakneck speed, compared to us. I stopped a lot to scratch Buddy behind the ears. I didn’t think to do that at all for either guy in our last two cone affairs, and now I feel bad about it. They can’t scratch in the spots where it’s just normal for them to have minor itches throughout the day. Buddy looks like he’s in heaven when I stop to do that, so I try to do it every now and then, and make him as comfortable as possible. The cone sucks. I can try to make it suck a little less.
We walked an hour and 10 minutes. Buddy pooped. Bubba did not.
7:30 am
I went over early, because I was worried about Buddy. He’s so good about not going to the bathroom inside, and he didn’t poop yesterday. And since he can’t get out the dog door, he might not go in the bathroom if he thinks he should wait to get outside. The poor guy had to be ready to burst.
He was at the door when I came up. He can work his way around with the cone while moving forward, but he hasn’t quite grasped that the cone is in the way when he’s not moving. He doesn’t back up enough when I open the door, and I can’t see the cone well in the shadows because it’s clear. Even opening the door slowly, it’s startling to him when the door catches the cone.
The other thing is he understands the cone impacts solid objects like walls, food dishes and steps, but not moving things (like the door). Poor Bubba bears the brunt of this, when Buddy goes in for some play time and Bubba gets the cone in his face, or when Buddy tries to do a crotch sniff, and Bubba gets a double edge – cone in the ribs and cone on the hip at the same time. Bubba moves away, but he doesn’t yip or snap. He seems to understand it’s not some aggressive act, and he doesn’t jab back or get upset.
I tried to get Buddy out quickly. I left the harness on so I wouldn’t have to deal with trying to catch and re-shackle an escapee once the cone was off. I put his medication on – he really does like that. I’m still not sure if it’s the medication itself, or if it’s because I’m massaging it into the wound that feels good, but he does like it. Best, he’s not recoiling, so he’s not in pain. That’s the most-important thing (unless it were to get infected).
We got out, but he froze on the landing. So he either doesn’t need to go that badly, or just doesn’t want to walk that early, maybe without Bubba. Bubba got up when we came back in, just in time to greet Buddy at the door and get a cone edge in the face. Bubba looked ready to walk, so I got his harness. He didn’t move away at all, and stepped right into it – but then ran from the leash. So no walk.
I put out the day food to marinade, and cracked open the back door. It will be a little cool, but that will help it not get miserable in the mid-day heat.