Merrylog

The princess pug is a pouty girl because we’ve been restricting her movements and activities due to the big gaping, you know, GASH in her leg (can she not feel it? isn’t it some kind of animal instinct to take it easy until you’re back to full strength? apparently not). And she’s not happy about it – or about having to wear the cone, which I removed for the photo.

Poor pug. Just another week or so and we’ll let you tear around like usual.

One of the fun things about going through surgery is you get to create new nicknames for the pug. One of them – the most obvious – is Frankenpug, since the surgical site is completely open to air (the upper leg’s not really an easy place to wrap up on a dog) and you can see the stitches (thankfully, done with transparent thread) and the big gash in her leg all sewn up and buckled a little, because again, pugs and skin and inner legs. I did take a picture but didn’t post it in the main post because if you’re anything like me you HATE looking at this kind of thing and your knees buckle and your stomach churns and you would totally never make it as a nurse. However, my mom’s a crazy lady who loves to share battle wounds so I’ve posted it here for her and for anyone else who wants to see the scar.

The second nickname is Frilled Lizard because with that great big enormous soft cone on her (which is just SO much easier to manouver in than a hard cone and has worked just as well for us) she totally looks like the little freaky lizard dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. Don’t believe me? Click that link and compare. Seriously. Funny.

Recuperating from surgery has been done Merry-style. It has not in any way limited her ability to beg food from us or bug us with the ball (though we’re not allowing her to play right now, she keeps on tryin’). She sleeps, but not really much more than the usual pug 16 hours. Her energy levels have been okay and she hasn’t seemed like she was in too much pain (the codeine she’s on may be helping there, yes?).

It was wonderful to have her home and snuggly and warm near us this weekend. I am very grateful the little bit made it through okay. My vet’s totally awesome and if you live in Toronto and looking for a fabulous vet, email me and I will give you her information.

The princess pug asked her doctor to tell me so I could tell you that she got through the surgery just fine. (Yes, that sound you hear is me sagging in relief. I’m a noisy sagger.) The mast cell tumor removal went very cleanly and while she has stitches, there’s not a lot of tension on the skin around the leg and our wonderful lady vet feels that it will heal up beautifully.

We won’t know for another week or so about the results of the pathology on the tumor but I am hoping for a positive answer there, since her initial tests all indicated a “mild”, stage 1 tumor.

I find out tonight around 7pm if I can pick up my baby girl and bring her home. Where she will be snuggled and touched often just to reassure us both. :)

THANK YOU, all of you, for your good thoughts and wishes! They worked!

When I walked the pug last night it was absolutely freezing. Like, -25C (that’s -13F for our US friends). Crazy. So I dug out a photo from last summer to use for today because I miss the sun. I would like to have light and warmth back. Doesn’t it look wonderfully warm and sunny in the photo? Don’t you wish you were there?

Folks, Merry’s going into the hospital tonight to (finally) have that mast cell tumor removed (surgery is tomorrow morning). They are still concerned about her heart arrythmia but weren’t able to determine a cause for it and my doctor and her advisers felt it was still best to go ahead with the surgery, and they’ll just keep a super-close eye on her heart as the surgery takes place.

So, of course I’m scared. Because I’m a pug mom and a worrywart and… well, you get the idea. Hopefully I will have fabulous news for you tomorrow afternoon and the pug will be fine and de-tumorized and ready to come home for a great deal of suckiness and spoilage! Until then, I’ll be biting my fingernails and avoiding sappy music and trying desperately to distract myself from thinking about, well, anything. :)

Will post tomorrow as soon as I know anything.

Oh, my, Merry had a great deal of fun playing with me this morning. Look at how excited she is! :) If you have a Flickr account, you can see it larger on Flickr.

I forget sometimes to drag out my 100mm when we’re in the house – it’s so long, it’s tough sometimes to get enough light (which is why I’m addicted to my 50mm 1.4). But there was enough light today (gorgeous day, really – ABOVE freezing temps, even!) so we went for it.

I love how close it lets me get to the princess pug’s sweet doggy face. Especially when she’s smiling and happy and playing fetch.