We celebrated by having Harriet’s stitches removed. Dr. Koch said the incision looked great (and it really does). The tumor was exactly what he thought it would be (benign spindle cell). It may grow back in the same location, but it shouldn’t spread. Yay! I can live with that. And, more importantly, so can Harriet.
Tag: Harriet
Cone-free and Happy
When I come home and take off Harriet’s cone, she does the happy dance of coneless freedom. This involves rubbing her face up and down the back of the couch, flopping around on her back like a trout, and much yawning and sneezing, before collapsing into a heap of happy Boxerness. And sometimes, the joy is just too much and requires a second or even third repetition of the happy dance
See how wonderful the contours of the right side of her butt look? Dr. Koch did a very nice job.
Dead of Cone
We are not amused.
When I got home yesterday, the first thing I did was I remove Harriet’s cone. There was much rejoicing. And then, while I was on the phone with my mom, I turned my back on Harriet for two seconds and she started licking her incision. The cone went back on, which was, as you can see, a major buzzkill. (It came off again as soon as I got off the phone and was no longer distracted.)
I sleep with one eye open.
Miss Brown Plots World Domination
I took this on Sunday, a few hours after the electricity went off, when it was clear we were in for the long haul.
Two Days Post-op
I took this yesterday. The incision is a little red, which had me concerned, but it’s not hot or swollen, and the redness is fading. They had to loosen the skin underneath, to get enough slack to close the incision, and I think that’s probably what’s causing the redness. The vet gave her antibiotics, so there shouldn’t be any problem with infection.
Other than the redness, she looks good! I’m amazed at the fact that there’s no swelling. The contours of her butt actually match on both sides now.
Status Report (Illustrated Edition)
Harriet is home. She’s doing great! She’s alert, happy, and has a good appetite. That first photo is of her hoovering the kitchen floor for stray crumbs.
The surgery site is going to ooze blood for awhile. I was prepared for that (it’s a bad location for that sort of tumor on a lean dog). They’re sending the mass out to be identified, but the vet is pretty sure it’s a spindle cell tumor. If he’s right, he thinks it’s going to be benign, but will come back in the same location and grow more quickly than the last one. We’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it. Right now, I’m just glad to have my dog back in one piece!
Oh, and the incision itself? It’s a smiley face. My dog has a happy butt!
Watching TV
Harriet’s surgery is next week. I’m assuming the best, but just in case, I’m spending lots of time just hanging out with her. I would really hate to regret not having done so. Tonight, hanging out means watching CSI re-runs with a lap full of dog. Every time I get up, Harriet sits up straight, with her best “We are not amused” expression.
Miss Brown
Those leopard print couch pillows are wonderfully squishy. Miss Brown approves.
Rust and Lilies
1. If you’re a supervisor, shouldn’t you know that it’s kind of inappropriate to say “Good job, girl!” to a black employee? Aieee!
2. Slowly but surely, all paths to the library are being eliminated by road work. This morning, 10th street at the bypass was closed. WTF?! They really shouldn’t make it difficult for me to get to work in the morning, because I just might take it as a sign to turn around and go back home.
3. One day last week, I came home to a note from FedEx on my door, telling me that they’d left my package with Charlene. Okaythen! Who the hell is Charlene (an apartment number might have been helpful), and whose package is FedEx trying to deliver to me? Because I hadn’t ordered anything, so I knew it wasn’t mine. Nor did I have any way to find out who the package rightfully belonged to, to inform them that Charlene had their goods.
Of course, my iPod is being shipped FedEx. Hopefully, they won’t leave it with Charlene.
4. Windsor and Newton’s Galeria line includes an iridescent acrylic medium. I didn’t buy any, but I did make note of it. Ooooh! Shiny! I did get a tub o’ acrylic structure medium for the new painting, as well as a few new brushes and two big, fat tubes of cerulean blue and naples yellow paint. There shall be painting this weekend!
5. Across-the-hall neighbor trapped a kitten, and I got to go over and hold it. She’s super cute and not nearly as wild as my neighbor first thought. I’m betting that her owner moved out and left her. That tends to happen a lot in college towns. I held her for about 30 minutes, and she was perfectly comfortable. She purred, but not in an anxious way, and when I rubbed her ears, she leaned into it. So if any local folks are looking for a nice cat, I can hook you up. (Yeah, fat chance, I know!) She’s all black, short-haired, with two little white toes on one hind foot, and a small white patch on her belly. And a DC-10 motor.
6. Harriet could not be any cuter, not even if she tried. I have no new photographic proof of this, because I was too in awe of her ubercuteness to take peechurs. She was in a Mood, last night, though, so there was much kidney beaning, boinging, and wrinkly-snarly-smiley face making. (Lamprey face-making, even. Totally ridiculous.) And much rolling around with legs in the air, flippy-flapping like a happy trout. I should also mention the snorting and the nubbin wiggling. There was quite a bit of that, too.
She was very happy about something, and when Harriet is happy, it’s impossible not to be happy right along with her.
Surprise Lily Keeps Surprising
Status Reports
1. Spotty fish is very nearly completely unspotty. All the ammonia burns are gone, except for a small patch of about five scales on his side. That will be gone soon, too, and I will be back to not being able to tell Fish One from Fish Two.
2. Harriet’s lump removal surgery is scheduled for September 9th. I was afraid that I’d have to talk them into doing the surgery, because the vet seemed hesitant. Apparently she took my concerns about it bothering Harriet seriously, though, because she put a note on Harriet’s chart, recommending that it be done.
red paper boat 