Pippin Update

Hi all! We dropped Pippin off at the surgeon this morning. We were really impressed with him, and he spent about an hour going over the 3 steps he may have to take all of, or depending how serious the knee was once he got in there, he may have to do 1 or 2 of them. He seemed very, very intelligent and Pippin was a big fan of the doc. Of course he's a big fan of MOST everyone (there have been 1 or 2 ppl along the way he hasn't cared for!). I was doing pretty good until the nurse took him away, and of course there were lots of tears then. From then on I was pretty much pegged as the "obsessive mom" and I was warned about getting him too excited and wound up when we pick him up, warned about coming too early to pick him up and basically picked on. But have you seen Pippin??? He's so cute, who wouldn't want to spoil him??? We can pick him up at noon tomorrow, provided he's not running a fever or in any other sort of distress. His little leg is going to be shaved and he's going to have a fairly large scar and will be "sealed up" with staples, so doc is also sending home one of the "coneheads" in case he tries to bite at his staples. The next 48-72 hours we're to keep him very, very rested, and for the next 2 weeks also very rested. So, for us, that means no visitors because Pippin goes crazy for people and will gladly injure himself again to be the little host with the most. I called the doc this afternoon to see how he was doing and they told me he was "wonderful" and made it through surgery just fine. I have to call back in the am and make sure he was fine through the night and that we can pick him up. I got him a bunch of new toys (Christmas ones on 75% off!!!) tonight and a little mattress for his crate so he'll be more comfy.

Anyway, thanks for all the supportive comments for Pippin. I know if you come here for running there really hasn't been a ton of discussion about that lately. But really, how often can you talk about the same 6 mile or 4 mile or 8 mile run at X:XX pace??? That's really just not what's on my mind right now because there's really nothing special to report about it! I did get in 4 runs this week (so far) but there's just nothing exciting to say about it. And Pippin is very important to us, so everything going on with him is very important. Can I tell you how sweet it was that Brent's parents mailed Pippin a card today???Dogs have such personalities, and they're just about the sweetest friends you'll ever have. Any time we've ever been sick Pippin is right there to cuddle with us, and no matter how bad a day we have at work he is always insanely happy to see us. It just feels weird being here without his little body pressed up next to me, hogging the couch and snoring away. Brent has no desire to follow me absolutely everywhere I go in this house. Some people have dogs for the single purpose of having something to bark when someone drives up, but I think they're really missing out on the true love a dog can give you.

Anyway, more Pippin updates tomorrow! And good luck to everyone racing this weekend, esp Firefly taking on Arizona and everyone doing the Swampstomper that Brent and I were planning to do. I emailed the race director last night to tell her we couldn't come (since the race sold out) and she rolled our entries over to next year. YAY! And the course is VERY swampy right now! One section already has thigh-high water (and she's much taller than I am). With the torrential floods forecasted for this weekend that's going to be one muddy, fun race!

Have a great weekend!
Rae