my dog Cocoa

Hey there,
Cocoa is my dog, she's a German Short-haired Pointer and she's 9 months old. The photo above was taken the day we got her, almost 6 months ago. The gerber daisies are all gone now, chewed to tiny bits shortly after the photo was taken. The tall grasses in the distance are all flattened, Cocoa made a nest there. It gets full sun during the day and in the afternoon a lemon tree nearby provides some scattered shade. It's her favorite spot in the garden.

Anyway, Cocoa got spayed on Friday. She was very mellow all weekend due to the pain meds and she seemed to be recovering just fine. Then yesterday while my wife and I were at work Cocoa somehow managed to get her protective collar off and she chewed through her bandages and her stitches. I got home to a pretty gruesome scene in the back yard. I'll leave out the gory details. I wrapped a towel around her midsection and carried her to my car. I rushed her to the animal hospital. She had emergency surgery to repair the wound and it took about 1 1/2 hours to clean and repair the self-inflicted damage. The Vet said it was the worse thing he'd seen in a while.

So I didn't get to do anything last night except sit in the waiting room. I had planned on eating sushi and drinking beer and playing Halo with my fellow Curmudgens. Instead I sat and thought happy puppy thoughts. I thought about playing fetch and chase. I thought about how my 2 year old daughter loves to snuggle up with the puppy and wrap her arms around Cocoa's neck. And I thought about how we'd laugh about this in a year or two. "Remember that time Cocoa managed to land herself in the hospital, she was crazy back then and is still crazy now." I had a couple hours of sitting and waiting. There was nothing to read in the waiting room. So it was just me and my thoughts. After Cocoa woke up from the anesthesia around 10pm I had to take her to another animal hospital for overnight observation. I didn't get home until close to midnight and my wife was playing Lego Star Wars trying to keep her mind off of the dog. (She's 86% complete by the way. I'm very proud.) :)

The good news is that when I picked Cocoa up this morning around 7am she was up and walking. So I walked her around the parking lot of the animal hospital and she went pee and poo, both very good signs of recovery. But when I dropped her off at the Vet at 8am they said that they still won't know if the surgery worked until later today. She'll be under observation all day and she's listed in critical condition. They say the first 24 hours is the tell-tale sign whether she pulls through or not.
-E