STONED

 Scout wearing her cone.  Doesn't she look

pathetic?  She only wears the cone when we are gone.  She only

stays in that fence when we are gone too!  I hate leaving her like that!

       

I picked Scout up from the Vet's last Wednesday afternoon.  She had recovered enough from her "spay" operation for me to bring her home.  The vet tech explained the recovery instructions before bringing Scout out to me.  The instructions included things like, "no climbing stairs, off leash walking, no jumping, bounding, wrestling, or licking."  Ha, yeah, right, I thought as the instructions continued..."put this plastic cone over her head whenever she is unspuprvised, give her a syringe of pain killers every day for the next 5 days and keep her in-active!"  I smiled and nodded my head, however, I knew, probably as well as the vet tech did, that there was no way I would ever be able to keep Scout calm and in-active!  I carried the cone, the syringes and my wallet to the counter to pay for the surgery while the vet tech went to get Scout.  The dog at the end of Scout's leash, looked like Scout, and smelled like Scout, but DID not act like Scout.  She wobbled as she slowly walked towards me, her tongue stayed inside her mouth as I bent down to hug her and her eye lids fell closed when the other puppies in the waiting room barked.  Scout actually layed down right there in the waiting room, she ACTUALLY LAYED DOWN in public, with other puppies around!  She was definately stoned!!!  I scooped up my 48 pound puppy and carried her to the back seat of my car.  Marty met us in the driveway, carried her up the stairs and set her down on the couch where she spent the remainder of the evening drooling, snoring and sleeping.  It was weird to see our rambunctious, hyper puppy, so quiet and immobile!!  I began to think that keeping her in active might not be that hard!  We carried her up to the bedroom at bed time.  I couldn't bear the thought of putting the cone on her.  She could barely hold her own head up, how was she gonna have the energy to lick herself?  I decided if we put her doggy bed beside me on the floor, I'd hear her if she licked and I'd put the cone on then.  She slept the whole night through and so did I.  The next morning, I felt lost as I woke up and realized that today there would be no 5km walk with Scout.  She was banned to short, quick walks.  The minute she heard me stir in my bed, she bounced (oops, not supposed to bounce) out of her bed and chased (ooops, no running) me into the bathroom.  Before I could stop her, Scout climbed down the stairs (ooops another no-no) and the disillusionment I had felt the day before about her being calm, quickly faded.  Nothing keeps Scout down, nothing!!!!  

      Scout, looking much happier and without her cone!  Adorable!!!