Berry, the actual akitachow of akitachow.com, is having surgery today.  He has two eyelid growths and two masses on his trunk to be removed.  In addition, they will be aspirating something on his stomach to make sure it’s not malignant.  They called after I dropped him off to tell me he also has a really bad tooth (they found this when they were able to give him a complete once-over, meaning when he was out cold).  They said if they left the tooth it would be a major problem in the making, so I told them to go ahead.  I said, “Please tell me this is not one of his big front teeth.  Please tell me we won’t have to add to his sebaceous adenitis-induced mangy look with missing front teeth.”  No, not a front tooth.  Add another $200 for the tooth and we are up to $1k for the works, to include ear cleaning, nail trimming and general delousing.  Cut to 5 p.m. when we pick the poor guy up.  We hear all good news, and are sent home with antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and pain pills.  Berry has been quietly affectionate, sitting by us wanting to be comforted.  He clearly has some pain so we have been on top of the pain pills so he was finally able to lay down for a couple of hours.  He has just had it.  The one problem is proving to be the e-collar, which is as big as a swimming pool for a large dog.  I don’t know how we’ll get through the night, since we have to keep the e-collar on so he doesn’t scratch his eyes.  Why can’t they come up with something better?