Sammy's home! I got to pick him up this morning. I took a half day vacation today because I knew the settling-back-in process might take a bit.
We're supposed to:
1) confine him to a small area of the house for two weeks to keep him from walking much. Since we have an open floor plan on the first floor, I'm having to get creative with chairs. At some point, he'll realize he can barrel right through them but for now he's still feeling run down enough he hasn't shown any interest in trying, as long as I stay within sight, if not right next to him.
2) not let him do stairs. My home office is on the second floor and if I go up there he'll likely figure out the whole barricade thing to get up to me. So I'm trying to figure out how to work on the kitchen table without setting me back years ergonomically in terms of my neck and shoulder issues that I've been making headway on.
3) keep him on a leash and minimize his times outside to just "taking care of business." Again, not much of a problem right now while he's still worn out but we finally have spring outside and pretty soon, that'll kick in for him. "There's tennis balls out there, Mom!"
4) keep the "Elizabethan Collar" (such a high-brow term for the Cone of Shame!) on him whenever he can't be supervised. This will be more of an issue for Spencer (aka Princess Doggie) and the rest of us than Sam, I suspect.
He did eventually run Spencer to ground so they could say a proper hello.
Right now, since I'm sitting right next to the Doofus writing this, I've taken it off him so he could get some water and just relax for awhile. We'll see how this goes.
He's still not quite back to his old self but at least we have him home with us. He's getting lots of love from everyone except Spencer. Right now, she's keeping her distance a little because of the cone and, I suspect, she doesn't like all the vet smells on him. That'll wear off, I'm sure. Sam isn't poking at her too much--he's too sleepy.
We'll get results on the biopsy of the tumor sometime later this week. Fingers crossed...