Amy's 'momentary trouble'

Today our dog Feliz will be having an operation to remove 4 stones that have been blocking her urinary tract and causing her quite a bit of trouble. We’ve had her for going on 6 months now and it’s funny to think that this little ball of fur has really integrated herself into our family. If she were no longer with us, she would be sorely missed and a part of our lives would be missing. I’m not worried about the surgery, it’s of the fairly routine sort, I’m just amazed at the impact she has had on our family. Being 8 months old, she’s still a puppy, with puppy energy & puppy curiosity. She’s a very good dog and quite intelligent! Her ability to reason astounds me; case in point, when she was younger and still being house broken, whenever she had an ‘accident’, we would bring her back to the spot, show it to her, tell her no and put her in her kennel. She has since learned to go to the door when she needs to go out, but now with the stones issue, sometimes the urge comes on her too quickly and she can not wait for someone to notice she’s at the door. It has happened several times where I’ve been out in the kitchen and Feliz will come trotting in and go straight to her kennel and will not come back out. I could tell that something wasn’t quite right, so I go looking around and sure enough, she’s gone on the floor. She knew her actions were unacceptable (albeit, uncontrollable) and she knew what was expected of her when she’s in trouble and followed through by going to her kennel. What a good doggie!...now why can’t our kids be more like that?!

Amy is attempting to go without taking her prescription pain medication. She made it through yesterday with only taking Ibuprofen periodically throughout the day and a muscle relaxant just before going to bed for the night. It was a little rough, but it looked to me that she was dealing with a different type of pain (from the surgery?) rather than the cramping and the pain associated with that. She’s doing much the same today. I think she’s doing this to see if her pain meds are what’s causing her cramping. Let’s pray she’s right, but also that the pain she does have, would quickly dissipate or at least can be controlled by the Ibuprofen.

This is Amy's story as seen and told by me - V