Oh where the heck to begin....

What a day! Last night Parker tried off and on for an hour to get out of the gate that now has a lock on it...he finally settled down until 5:45 when he needed to go out!

Took Parker to the vet for X-rays on his gimpy knee...I had no idea that he was going to go under anesthesia to have the X-rays taken. The vet comes back and says to me "while he's under, why don't I just snip him too?" "He's under?" I asked. "Well I'm not messing with him while he's awake" he said "Sure, let's get it done." So the poor boy lost his man bits today.

His knee has an old fracture that has caused some hardened swelling. He has full range of motion but may have arthritic pain as a result. No surgery needed, no special precautions (aside from common sense I'm guessing.) May need some anti-inflammatory meds to help with the pain at some point.

Ok so this is all before 9:30 this morning. I called Linda from the rescue on my way home because I thought Parker had allergies and I wanted to talk diet with her to get them under control and as we're talking she let's me know she thinks he has kennel cough: sneezy, runny eyes & nose, etc etc. And as I process that I remembered that i was trying to figure out why Tink has been sneezing so much the past 2 days (and kept me up for a good portion of last night.) Dammit, they both have kennel cough I realize. As I walk through the door Tink has boogers on the couch and a runny nose. My baby girl is sick and it's the stupid shelter's fault that Parker came from. They gave him every immunization possible including Bordatella. Combine that with a weakened immune system and a crap diet, he got kennel cough from the vaccine. Parker and Tink exchanged a mucusy nose greeting and now Tink has it too : ( Of course we realize all this after Parker just had surgery...

Ok, so now we're adding vitamin C and A (in appropriate doses) to their diets in an effort to kick this. Clavamox can only treat sympoms and I'm not interested in that at this point. Both seem reasonably comfortable although Tink seems to have it worse than Parker. My little girl is a fighter and she will beat this like she has everything else. She is currently cuddled under a blanket with a t-shirt on and her head and paw on my lap.

And as if all this wasn't enough drama for one day, Parker went after my pant leg last night when I tried to pick up his leash and move him away from the couch last night. So once again Parker will spend the week in the kitchen (Linda spent all morning on the phone with me!) As she said "he doesn't need to sit in the computer room with you!"

I felt like a moron in the waiting room of the vet's office as Parker barked his head off at another dog in the room and he would not listen to me...the others in the room looked at me funny... I just wanted to give up at that point... he had already peed on the floor and now he can't even behave himself. Nick and I was hoping that he would at least be worn out from surgery today, but so is not the case. He has finally settled in the kitchen (good thing as he will be spending lots of time there this week!)

Tinker's packing is going to have to wait until she feels better (hopefully in a day or two...) She's resting up for her beach week!