Skipper update

Well, Monday night was the first night of me putting the gel on her burns. Knowing it was coming, I went to the store at lunch and bought surgical/latex gloves (not only was the thought of touching the wounds giving me the creepy crawlies, but if I had something on my hands, it could hurt her more). I was stupid… I tried holding her in my lap to do it. Of course, it was hurting her. She struggled around and nipped me in the process. (Brian said, “Did you fuss at her?” Me: “No, I was hurting her. I would’ve nipped me too!”) What really made me feel bad was that with all her thrashing around and then her nipping me, she fell out of my lap. I managed to get the gel on her and give her her medicine and learned two valuable lessons: 1) Figure out a way to do it with her standing, and 2) Do it first thing when you get home – before the sun goes down and you lose most of your light! The next morning went much better. I poured her food in her bowl, she’d take a few bites here and there while I rubbed the gel on her wounds. Medicine’s more of a challenge now, though. It’s easier to get jaws open when they’re in your lap. As it is, I hold her just behind her jaw so she can’t easily back away from me and I rub the dropper along her gums/teeth until she gets annoyed and opens up. Hey, it works!

I know her breed is a smart one so I’m hoping it’ll come… our back sidewalk is such that you take a few steps, then step down; take a few more steps, step down (repeat a couple more times). Well, you can do that or you can turn left and go into the yard and just walk down the slight hill. Our darling puppy hasn’t figured that part out. She’ll walk to a step and whimper. I pick her up and put her down the step, she walks to the next one and whimpers. I tried showing her how to walk in the yard and avoid the step but it didn’t seem to click.

One sweet thing – I asked Taylor last night if she’d like to say a prayer for Skipper, she said yes. Then I asked her she wanted me to say it or if she wanted to say it. Taylor said, “Me do it!” She put her hands together, closed her eyes and said some things I didn’t understand but it ended with “and make puppy all better. Amen.”

That’s really about it. She waddles, she’ll walk in the yard some then just stop and stand there then eventually whimper. I know it’s going to be a slower process, but am I so ready for her to be through this.