Getting Ready for Charles to Come Home

With Charles' surgery a success, I had to make preparations for him to come home. He would need to be on crate rest for at least a month. I borrowed a large kennel from a family member, stockpiled blankets and bought some really nice meat.

I set up his cage and made it comfy, yet with a very flat and soft yet firm base. I had noticed that he preferred a firm bed after he got hurt, so I put away the Dutchie Bowser Bed. I also took an old Tempur-Pedic pillow from our bed (it needed to be retired anyway) and put that aside. This would become Charles' favourite thing!

I also had to buy a new harness. Truth be told, despite owning and knowing that a harness would be easier on Charles' back, I never used it. Most of our walks would be to Cherry Beach, the woods in Aurora or Ashbridges Bay Park where Charles would be off leash. Any shorter walks would be just jaunts around the block. So I set out to buy a good harness as Charles would not be off leash for long while. After some research, I settled on the Buddy Belt. It seemed to be the best fitting least restrictive and minimalist of all the others I looked at. Plus it had the bonus of completely avoiding the incision on Charles' back.

Friday and Saturday were long days. By Saturday night, I was ready for Charles to come home. On Saturday evening, I had dropped off some extra food at VEC. I had made a point not to visit Charles because having never been away from me before, coupled with never having been in a cage, his anxiety was pretty bad. He had to be moved to the back room because he was making some pretty terrible noises. Granted, the medication probably had something to do with it, but I was worried that my visit would get him too excited, and then make him even more upset when I left. When I dropped the food off, I asked if there was any way I could see Charles without him seeing me. They snuck me into the back and once I got close and heard him, I knew that I couldn't let him sense I was there!

He was making noises that were a combination of a cry, whine and a panicked howl. It was the worst thing I could have done! I had so much anxiety after that. I was told he didn't make the sound all the time and he was sleeping alot but it was terrible!