Frankenpup

For the surgery, they had to shave her leg, and the incision left a huge, ugly scar which is still all stitched up. She also has to wear a cone/e-collar around her head to prevent her from licking/chewing her own wound. She hates that cone, because it must be be so uncomfortable. She is constantly bumping into walls, crashing into our legs, and has trouble eating and drinking with that huge ugly protrusion. When we are at home, we watch her closely and take it off to let her get some un-fettered sleep, but unfortunately at night she still has to wear it because we can't watch her. She is a con artist, however, and twice last night I woke up with that maternal suspicion all women must innately possess when they just know that their children are up to no good. First, I heard the pup going to her water bowl and it sounded like she is happily taking huge slurps and it just sounded like she is having too easy of a time. Surely, I got up and saw her wagging her tail at me WITHOUT her cone, as if she didn't just committ a dangerous offense that could send her back to that hospital. I put it back on, but then a few hours later, I hear her going to the toilet without bumping into anything, and when I got up, her cone was lying on the ground and she is sleeping very comfortably with her bare head resting on the side of her doggie bed. That little sneaky dog has mastered slipping her small head out of the cone QUIETLY right besides my bed, which means there must have been some level of plotting and contemplating involved in that pea-sized brain of hers.

The cone and her shaved leg do make some interesting photos for this blog, however. Matt had a ball taking pictures of her chicken leg (it's seriously that thin, since she has lost all her muscle mass in the past few months that she wasn't using it) and her cone-head. Below are some of Matt's artistic pieces:

If Dr. Frankestein had created a dog companion for his monster, the dog might have looked like this:

Upon closer inspection of the incision:


Poor Azuki and her cone, giving us a sad look as if saying, "how do you expect me to sleep with this stupid thing?":


View from the top:

Tomorrow we go in to get her sutures removed and hopefully she won't have to wear the e-collar anymore. I am not actually sure if it will really happen, since I suspect that she has been licking her incision when her cone was off, and also that I can still see some redness in her incision. I will keep you updated on what happens. In the meantime, please keep Azuki in your thoughts and hope for her speedy recovery!