Day of surgery

Well, this is the day of surgery and we got up at 6am. It was a little difficult feeding FeeFee and distracting Niko because he can't eat before surgery. They're being walked right now and FeeFee will be dropped off at Grams house for the duration of the day. Yesterday we went to Home Depot and I had a piece of wood cut 17" x 36" to make a ramp for the car. Because we have an SUV, it's a little high for Niko to climb into with the injured leg. He needs that back leg to lift himself into the car and he hasn't been able to go for a ride since the injury. Then I stapled some rubber pads to the board to act as traction strips so he wouldn't slip on it as he walks up into the car.

I'm just trying to prepare the house and make sure that I have everything I need for when we bring him home tomorrow morning. I read somewhere that if you hold a towel around their mid-section and lift them up - you can to help them lift their rear end when they go up or down the stairs. So I cut up a towel and put on handles.

Last week when I realized that it was a serious injury I brought out my doggy gates and blocked the upstairs and downstairs floors so Niko was only allowed to use the main floor. He accidentally came downstairs last week before I did this and it was a disaster. I couldn't lift him up the stairs (73 lbs) and he couldn't walk up the stairs - so I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again.

The other thing that I did to prepare was gather up all the soft doggy mats and beds that I have scattered around the house and put them on the main floor and covered them with blankets. I read that the floor will be too hard for them to lay down and they will prefer a soft bed of some kind. Since I have two dogs and a cat, I had to make sure that I had enough for everyone. Most days, the cat is lounging on the dog bed and they don't kick her off. The other days, FeeFee, likes to lay on the soft padded bed.

So I think I'm set. It's 7am and time to get ready to take Niko in for his consultation and x-rays. Blood work was already taken last week and has been faxed to the surgeon's office. Niko will stay at there and they'll do the surgery this afternoon. He'll spend one night there and we'll pick him up tomorrow morning. So I think: Niko's ready and we're ready.

I've done all I can do to prepare for this and I think of the trials that I've been through in life and remind myself that with the grace of God: "This too shall pass".