Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – May 4, 2014

Cupcake said, “Love and licks and you are also my best friend.”

Awe Cupcake you are so sweet!  This comment made me smile.

Sophie said, “There are so many things that our sweet Gus does, but the most endearing is the way he plays ball…..He knows I don’t see well. I don”t have any peripheral vision, so sometimes I can’t find the ball when he drops it in front of me. He watches and if he sees that I am having a hard time finding the ball, he will run back to me, get the ball, and steady it in front of me until I see where it is! He never gets irritated with me, no matter how often he has to come back and help me.”

Sophie, you are a very lucky woman.  Aren’t animals amazing?  So patient and intuitive, it constantly amazes me. And yes, this comment made me a wee bit teary.  Do you have a blog?  If you do, would you live the name and addy in the comments?

Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend

Blueberry’s Human said, “I have to admit when I saw the title of this post, I thought it would be about dog poop. Let me explain…my mom always called dog poop “doggy diamonds” as in “Oh no! You stepped in doggy diamonds and tracked it in the house!”.”

BAH HA HA, you know poop is always a great topic on this blog.  BUT I have never heard it called “doggy diamonds” before.  Do you know how she came up with that?

2 Brown Dawgs said, “Beautiful pictures. Irish whiskey coffee, huh? Might explain the attempt to walk two at once…lol!”

Sadly I wasn’t drinking at the time, if only I had been, who knows, I might have managed better, sort of the way Kristine did in Drunken Master IV: Canine Fu.

Roxy the Traveling Dog said, ” Sometimes trying to save time is not the very best plan.”

I really know this too, I guess maybe I was just feeling nostalgic.

The Sights, the Sounds, the Smells!!!

Jan K said, “I can hear the robins when I’m still lying in bed. Though I think they wake the dogs up earlier! The dogs love all the seasons I think, with each one varying their routines.”

Dogs live in the moment, they seem to always adapt to whatever life throws at them.  That is the lesson I would love to learn from my dogs.

I Always Feel Better After I Talk to MY Vet

I know so many of you are dealing with or have dealt with similar or far worse situations.  It’s hard sometimes when we are doing the best we can and not seeing the progress we should be.  And it’s hard to watch someone you love struggle, especially when you cannot convey to them what is going on.  When I was speaking with my Vet on Wednesday night, I told her I really thought Sampson was depressed.  And I don’t blame him.  Everything has changed for him and he doesn’t understand why. It pains me to look at his sad face and not know whether he will experience again all those things he loves.

To top it off as I was walking him last night a neighbor from up the street stopped me.  His dog had the same surgery at the same Vet’s three weeks ago.  He said he was not as strict as he should have been, leaving it up to his dog to determine what was comfortable and she was doing stairs at 10 days!  And she’s doing very well (according to him.)

Hubby thinks I’ve been too strict with Sampson and I feel like I’ve totally failed him.

Beth said, ” I definitely understand the emotional, psychological, financial burden of lots of time at the vet–for a while, both of my pets had so many problems (chronic FLUTD, xylitol poisoning, a worm, a run-in with a bottle of aleeve, lyme disease) that I was pretty sure they just wanted to spend more time with the vet than with me.”

Wow, you’ve been through it.  I hope all is well now.

Frankie and Ernie said, “WE are SURE that Sampson is going to show improvement VERY soon. It takes a bit of time for thingys to HEAL and for him to TRUST that he is actually BETTER.”

And the therapist did say that as well.  She said sometimes the dog seems slow and then boom, he turns the corner and flies through recovery.  We will know more today after the X-rays and I’ll make sure to update my Facebook page and I’ll add an update to this post as well.

Jan K said, ” It sounds like the therapist could do better, and not be so vague.”

That’s exactly it.  I don’t like not knowing, if you can tell me what could be wrong and how it will be fixed I am okay with that.  Some people can fly by the seat of their pants with no issues, I can’t.  I’m just not wired that way.

Kirsten said, ” I’m betting he just needs more time for that leg to feel better.”

I’m hoping he’s just a slow healer.  He was using his leg a little more in the house yesterday.

Carol Bondy said, “I think..if I’m remembering right..that happened to Donna’s Leah. I think it was the screw and was giving her pain..had it repaired”

It was the sutures Carol, Leah was allergic to the material used in the sutures. Once the sutures were removed Leah did great!

SAMPSON UPDATE:

Sampson’s X-rays are good.  Surgeon  felt the psoas and said it is tender, so he put him on Gabapentin.  He said it “could” be the meniscus, but he’s not willing to call it yet.  Two weeks on the Gaba and a recheck.  It’s as good as I could hope for.  

PLUS he gave the okay for Sampson to be out of his room during the day.  I think that will help a lot!

That’s it for now, thanks for all your encouragement and words of support and comfort.  It helps knowing we are not alone in this.