Berry resting at home on his futon after surgery

We are all exhausted.  Berry proceeded to pace around the house at intervals with the e-collar, trying to jam himself through small spaces.  When we was not doing this, he would stand near the bed staring at us and crying, using tones I have not heard before.  He did this despite the pain pills, so we were worried.  Finally, I decided to give the e-collar a temporary heave-ho in order to see how much of this was about the collar rather than post-surgical pain.  The second it came off he raced to his bed and was snoring in no time.  We felt better.  Screw the e-collar.  I wrapped an Ace bandage around each front paw to cover those insane dew claws and that, as they say, was that.  I don’t care that his Akita single-mindedness got him out of the e-collar.  He was in pain and this was not a time for us to worry about who is in control (he is).  The poor dog just needed to sleep.  He was doped up and slept like a lump for hours.  In the morning I found the bandages on the floor, so I rigged something up for his paws with sock bands.  While he has been incredibly pissed off at me (he won’t look at me), I am trying to explain to him that it’s either those socks or the e-collar.  He groans at me when I put them on, and he is ignoring me and not sleeping by me in general.  I don’t blame him.  It’s not like I was able to let him know in advance what would happen.  I take this responsibility very seriously and I feel bad for him.  How would you like wake up and find that you are missing teeth?  It’ll take a bit before he trusts us again.

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?

Berry is unhappy in the car, as you can see here.  He should be happy, though, because he knows that I always get him a McDonald’s double cheeseburger without condiments when we have to go to the vet or something else unpleasant.  Just about any other time I pile him into the car we go to the park or to the bay so he can go around with his nose in overdrive.  Given that he knows he is either getting a burger or going to the park, I don’t get this drama with car trips.  I also cannot get him into his canine seat belt because he acts like a jerk when I try.  This limits me to slow, local routes with someone in the back seat holding him when I have to stop at a light.