The old boo-boo's got a boo-boo...

Crystal here.

So, it's been five months since Jaida's surgery.

And she's STILL having problems with her incisions!!!!!

She's been licking/nipping at her chest in one spot for quite some time, months for sure...I never could see or feel anything there, and after talking with other moms/dads of three-leggers I wrote it off as nerve "zaps" and regrowth or phantom pains. Well, about two or three weeks ago I found a brownish scab there. I soaked it off, put on a little antiseptic, did the ol' "wait and see"...well last night my comfort level with "waiting and seeing" was GONE, the scab was there but rather oozy-looking, and it felt puffy underneath, plus there was this weird hard "tube".

So, off to the vet this morning. Today we saw Dr. Kitchen at Dundas Veterinary Services, who was the first vet to see Jaida when we first got her...and therefore also contributed to the removal of the layers off poo and pee from her fur. (Dr. Kitchen exclaimed today that Jaida was much bigger and considerably "less tangy" than the first time she met her...)

Well, after some shaving, local anaesthetic, forceps, big ol' squirty syringes of saline, and a VERY well-behaved and tolerant Jaida...we discovered that she had some proper skin growing under the scar, complete with 1.5" hairs (hence the "tube"). We THINK it might heal properly now that the hairs have been pulled out and the vet took a stab at pulling the skin out, but there's about a 50-50 chance we may have to excise some skin and reposition/suture it properly so this doesn't happen again.

To top it all off, Dr. Kitchen found a second lump at the top of her scar (we hadn't noticed that one before), which she drained, and a quick stain showed bacteria growing in the smelly fluid she pulled out. We're hopping that the poking there will induce an immune response and she'll fight it off on her own, but if not, it may need some surgical or medicinal intervention too.

SIIIIIGGGGHHHH.

Oh well, could be worse. She's otherwise lovely. And she is the world's best little patient, the techs kept marvelling over how tolerant and calm and sweet she was despite everything. (That's our girl).

My first trick!

Jaida here.

Moms are all excited because I learned something called a trick. Mom Crystal has been calling me a dum-dum-head lately, which is most unbecoming to a gal of my cleverness, so I decided to show her that I am NOT a dum-dum-head. (For the record, I am simply disinterested in listening, I'm far too busy with other important things).

So I have learned to SHAKE-A-PAW. This involves me sitting on my bum and giving moms my ONE GOOD LEG to hold. I don't see why it's such a big deal, but they go "AWWWWWWWWWWW, HOW CUTE" and give me cookies.

I like cookies a lot, so I can handle doing this SHAKE-A-PAW business.

p.s. it SNOWED this morning, and I got very excited about it and did crazy zoomies in the yard with Gracie. Gracie was not happy about getting her paddy-paws all cold and wet. What a grumpster.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Jaida here!

It's my birthday, yup, yes it is!!! I am a whole one year old today, I think that makes me a big girl now! Moms better spoil me rotten tonight, as is fitting and right for a three-legged gal of my gorgeousness and fabulousness!!

Happy fall!

Jaida here.

My gorgeous three-legged self and the fabulous Miss Gracie want to wish everyone a happy fall!

The very small person.

Jaida here.

The very small person, Jacob, visited us again for the day. He has many toys that have a lot of fun-ness in them, but moms say Gracie and I are not allowed to play with them, no fair. But he is just a BAY-BEE and doesn't know about the niceness of sharing yet, so it's o.k. Besides, he is very interesting even withOUT his toys. Gracie especially thinks so...Moms told Jacob that it was time to go sleepies and put him in a wheelie bed, and he made noises that said he was not happy. I was a little worried about the noises, but he did go sleepies so I guess he wasn't THAT sad.

(That's me looking worried up there...those sad BAY-BEE no-sleepies noises are worrisome.) I hope Jacob comes back soon!

Life is good...and boring.

Jaida here (that's me...).

This fab-three-legger is hoping she's not boring you to tears. I think I read on Xena's blog that being a dog with only ONE GOOD LEG stops being very exciting after a while because life just becomes very normal-ish...

And it has. I am still bunny-hopping and fabulous. My sister Gracie is still my hero (we're really the bestest of buds these days). My moms still take us for nice walks in the woods and play frisbee with us in the yard and chase me out of the veggie garden (although they dug up all the nummy tomato plants this weekend, how rude!)

I think the only exciting thing that happened to me recently was that I got to meet a very small person named Jacob, who is my cousin. Jacob is about the smallest person I've ever met. He doesn't talk and he smells really, really, interesting. He has soft skin and very small hands that like to touch my fur. I liked him a lot (so did Gracie, she cried because she couldn't see him very well when moms told her to DOWNSTAY). I hope we get to spend more time with him.

Other than that: boring. But, moms still take pictures of me, on account of my cuteness, so I can share those with you.

You can see that my boo-boo is all better (mom Crystal keeps telling me I need to grow more fur, but I'M WORKING ON IT, ALREADY!!!)

My ONE GOOD LEG is strong like Popeye...

And moms still can't beat me at tug-of-war...

O ye of little faith.

Crystal here.

Ok, that title was for my benefit.

Jaida did fine. No puke, poo, pee or chewed-up things in sight after Gracie and I got home from the vet. There were, however, songs, sighs and stories about her day alone that lasted a good TWO HOURS, then Kim got to hear about them all over again when SHE got home. Sheesh. Rotten loudmouth german shepherds.

Gracie did wonderfully, although she was supremely stoned and glassy-eyed for the evening. Back to her usual self, and carrying her heaviest, hardest, bumpiest toy around in her mouth in the morning, making me cringe.