Recovering

Coulee is feeling much better since her dental.  Her cheeks have almost gone back down to normal size and she has become quite sassy at home... She's been chasing the cats and nudging them to run when they don't go on their own, wrestling with Lacey and just generally being a brat.  It's funny how you don't always notice that something is missing until it's back.

We've been going on "sedate" walks every day and while they are 100 times less energetic than they were prior to our knowledge about her back, they probably aren't as sedate as they should be during this recovery time.  I have to keep calling her back to me, calming her with a down or asking her to heel for a bit.  I'm not sure what is worse - a bit of running, or pulling and lunging like crazy on a leash. I have lots of questions for the vet but I'm glad the appointment isn't for a week as they are coming to me slowly as things pop into my head or as something happens.

She learned how to do the ramp to the car no problem. I started her on the front steps and kept raising it a step after she successfully completed each "level" a few times.  Going up to the car is quite a bit steeper and she needs to keep up her momentum to get up, but with a cookie as a lure, my hand in her collar,  and my body blocking the open area so she can't jump, she manages it just fine.

Lacey is enjoying all the cookies I've been dispensing lately.  ;)

Keeping her off the bed has been a bit more challenging.  We hadn't really thought about how much she actually gets up there as she doesn't sleep up there with us, but it is the only furniture in the house she's allowed up on. We usually let her up in the mornings right before we get out of bed.  We've managed to put a stop to that (although this morning while we were distracted she jumped up and joined us) but when we are getting dressed in the morning, she's on it.  If I'm puttering in bathroom, she's on it. Sometimes she goes upstairs by herself and gets on it.  So it looks like we are going to ban her from the bedroom during the day with a baby gate and maybe get a bed rail for the foot of the bed (it's where she snuck on this morning as our legs were blocking the sides).  We could just close the door but I don't want to lock Jack in there by accident.  He often sneaks in without us even noticing and he likes to sleep in our closet or in the box spring.