cuddles – Pawsitively Blind

I am so grateful to have so many friends and family who care so much for Makiko.

Last night Makiko could clearly tell I was worried because she was extra cuddly. Here are a few pics:

One of my coworkers picked Makiko and I up early this morning. We had Makiko at the vet and dropped off by 8. I went back to work. It was good to be distracted all day. She was out of surgery around 10:30. The incision is kind of large because they took a big area to make sure they got clean edges. Now they sent it off to the pathology lab and I should know more by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Tuesday is her fourth birthday so it would be cool to get the hopefully good news that day! She was sent home on a pain med, antihistamine, and antacid. We go back in 7 to 10 days to see about getting the staples removed. Because they did take such a large area, we had to do sutures and staples.

It was really sad and weird not to have her with me at work. Nobody to pet, walk around with, tell her to stay, sit on my feet under the lunch table etc.

She is now wearing this HUGE Elizabethan collar. I personally think it’s a little too big. We may have to play with it because she is going to be wearing it for awhile. When we walked out of the vet’s office, it took a good 5 minutes for me to convince her to walk with it on. She also has had a hard time getting into the car and climbing the stairs. It’s pretty sad to watch. I think it’s a combination of the pain and not being able to see as much due to the cone. The vet said I should keep it on mostly when we are not working, but I can take it off sometimes like when she is working. I may take it off for a few minutes when she goes to the restroom. We will have to see if she can wear the harness at all over the next week. It just depends where it rubs and if it hits the incision site. We shall see. If we can wear it, my aunt (also a vet) recommended we put her in a t shirt to help protect it. I liked that idea.

It will be hard not to work her that much this next week but it’s in her best interest so of course I will.

It was a huge blessing that Guide Dogs for The Blind is helping me cover the expense of this surgery as it was very unexpected. What a great organization!

So now we are going back to my Mom’s in Dallas for the weekend. That will be better because it’s 1 level so no stairs. Tomorrow is my boyfriends birthday celebration but I’m not sure if she will be able to go with us. We will see.

Poor Makiko. She is in some pain and is also still a little groggy. She barely moves.. Whereas before she almost always followed me around everywhere. Here is hoping she feels better soon and it’s not cancer.

Well, today was our hardest day yet. It was full of emotions and I’ll explain why.

Wednesday was Dad’s birthday so I was a little on edge that day but managed to get through it. I have kind of suppressed a lot of my grieving because I want to really concentrate on Makiko these two weeks. Well, I think it might have caught up to me a little bit because today I was more emotional but I couldn’t directly relate it to Dad.

Morning routine was normal.. food, water, relieve. It was our last time relieving together as a group. Breakfast at 7:30, I had scrambled eggs. Then we all got our stuff together for the day and headed to Portland. On the way to board the bus we had, of course, another dog distraction. Each day it gets a little more intense. This time one of the instructors stood about 100 feet away from another instructor and they had a dog run back and forth between the two. Makiko did great. I was very proud of her. I worked my normal route and then the instructor changed it up again so I wouldn’t know what to expect and neither would Makiko and so we practiced a little more. Since I am partially sighted and will eventually lose what little I have left, they put a blindfold on me to practice doing everything that way for when that does happen. I didn’t mind not being able to see as much as I didn’t like that thing on my face. We also wanted to practice this because at night I don’t have any vision at all. However, I think I’ll be more comfortable then than with a blindfold. With the blindfold, I did really well. I only had one issue and that was as we were crossing a street I felt the train tracks and that through me off so I missed Makiko’s cue for the upcurb. Ah well we reworked it and got it right the second time. After that route we went to work escalators. That is an interesting task — getting on an escalator with your dog. We did Juno practice first, so without Makiko and only me holding onto the harness and leash with my instructor holding onto the other end. When we finally used Makiko it went really well. She’s such a good girl! Then we came back to our dorm/campus and we had french onion soup and a delicious salad. Oh man that was a fabulous lunch. Then we had a lecture soon after, I think. During that lecture I got really sick. I got a horrific migraine, sound was miserable, I fell asleep (partially because of the migraine and partially because of the early rising). Instructor caught me, hah. They understand because it’s a lot of work but they still give me a hard time. It’s really funny because several other classmates were also drifting off but they cheated because they had sunglasses on still so they couldn’t tell. After the lecture, I went to my room, started puking so when I settled down I went to the nurse’s office and she gave me Tylenol and then I passed out (as in fell asleep really fast) and when I woke up I was fine. So I had missed a little bit with my instructor but not much. I cried when I got back to my room because I didn’t want to miss out working with Makiko and I was just feeling so horrible and also the instructor who gave me a hard time hurt my feelings. I’m telling ya, my emotions were on edge today.

Today we had goal meetings, overhead clearances, campus orientation, and free run scheduled in the afternoon. The goal meeting is a meeting to discuss where we are right now with our dog in terms of how we feel and how the instructor feels and what we want to get out of our next week. We then discussed lifestyle and what kinds of things we do when we return home so she can help us obtain the skills to work with our dog in these environments. I did really well and it was great. Next week should be a blast but a lot of work, of course. So I did the goal meeting but we weren’t able to do anything else before my instructor had to leave. So when the person who stays overnight, who is a Canine Welfare Assistant, came she took me out to the free run to let Makiko loose and then also showed me around campus. Oh my goodness my girl can RUNNNN! She is super duper fast. There is this trail that winds around campus through beautiful trees and it has benches along the way. They named it, of course, the “Oregon Trail.” Tomorrow is a free day and we have the opportunity to get off campus for a little while but we would have to leave the dog at home. Since I have been so tired this week and not feeling well today, I’m thinking I may stay at home. But to get the “mental health” break, I may take Makiko and go cruise the trail. I’m actually really excited about that. A cool thing about the trail is they have these little “speed bumps” in the road so when we are coming to a fork in the road, we can feel the speed bump to tell us. There are all these little nifty things that I never would have thought of. We got to see where the Visitor’s Center is and the kennels.

After that I went to dinner. There were other times in there where we watered, fed and relieved our dog but that’s becoming so natural I forget to mention it. Dinner was delicious as well, I remember that but I can’t remember what it was off the top of my head. I’m telling ya, I’m exhausted. After dinner was free time, I went back to my room to talk to one of my best friends for a bit and then two of my classmates each came to my door to invite me to watch a movie with them. I thought that was super sweet. So we ended up staying out there for many hours, watching the movie, letting our dogs play, and talking. It was truly wonderful after an emotional day.

It was really cute. So “E” brought her black labrador and his chew bone. Then “H”, her dog, me, and my dog also came but we didn’t bring our dog’s bones just because we didn’t think about it. Well then when Makiko started nibbling on the other dog’s bone while they were sitting next to each other, I decided to go get Makiko’s bone. Then when I brought it out, the last dog decided he was going to go steal Makiko’s bone. Makiko is so sweet she allowed it. But I fight for her and I got her bone back lol. So then “H” went and got her dog’s bone and they were all happy except her dog still stole Makiko’s bone and they kind of switched for awhile and then when I wasn’t paying attention, Makiko wouldn’t have ANY bones lol. Poor girl. She is such a sweetheart. There are old couch cushions that they have if we ever want to sit on the floor so we all got them. “H” got hers first and her dog decided HE wanted the cushion. (Pictures below). Then my dog and “E’s” dog decided to share my cushion for a bit. So then we settled in and she laid on my lap, as always. I decided halfway through the movie that I wanted to lay down so I laid down with the cushion as my pillow and then Makiko just curled up on the pillow by my head. It was adorable. So we just laid there the whole time together.

I will tell you what, Makiko is just amazing for me. We have already bonded so much and if you know me, I really love hugs and cuddling. She has been perfect for me and today when it was rough I really really loved having her cuddles and love. Close to midnight we all decided it was probably time to go to bed. We relieved our dog one final time before we went. Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you about that. When we got back from Portland today we got to relieve our dogs on our patio/run area for the first time. My dog is the ONLY dog that pooped out there right away and I think she’s the only one that pooped out there today period. The other dogs are taking a little more getting used to it. She peed too! lol. TMI? She’s such a great girl! She even comes and sits by my side after she poops instead of trying to go sniff out her poop like a lot of dogs do. It is nice to have her relieving in the patio/run area because now in the mornings and evenings especially I can be in my pajama’s and just walk outdoors and relieve her. The patio connected to my living area of my room is for relieving and the patio connected to my bedroom area is for relaxing. The staff water down the relieving patio quite often so it is nice and clean. I’m still responsible for picking up the poop though and throwing it in the bin.

Can you believe I graduate a week from today? The 16th I graduate and the 17th I fly back. Monday we’re gonna work on the overhead clearances that I didn’t get to learn today. Next week we have night routes, learning another route, a mall, a park, an outdoor shopping area, escalators, public transit, visiting with the veterinarian, having another goal meeting, graduation, graduation photos, etc.

Today I also heard from Makiko’s puppy raiser. She is so sweet. She probably won’t be able to come to graduation because it is super expensive. You see, the puppy raisers don’t get notified until approximately 10 days before graduation that a dog they raised is in class. The school doesn’t tell them until they are fairly sure that the dog they raised is going to be a good match. So at that point if you’re flying from like Colorado where my puppy raiser is, airline tickets are insanely expensive then she would have to probably get a rental car and a hotel room. That’s just too expensive. However, since I’m in Denver a lot I’m hoping we can meet up sometime soon. I’ll be there twice in the next 3 months so that should give us a good opportunity to meet. She has pictures and a present for me!! That’s exciting. I can’t wait to see what Makiko was like as a puppy.

So tomorrow is a free day. We still have to wake up and relieve our dogs but then I’m going to go back to sleep. Wake up around 11 hopefully, go to brunch (which is open for many hours), go to the gift shop to buy a few things hopefully, and then do laundry and nap and hang out with Makiko the rest of the day. I think the outing would exhaust me as much as I do want to see Portland. However with everything else that we are doing and as much traveling we are doing to different destinations to practice, I feel like I am already getting a good tour around Portland so that’s not that crucial. We’ll also take a few cruises/walks around campus so that’ll be nice. 🙂 I just hope the weather holds up nice for us. NO RAIN! I’m hoping tomorrow I can get plenty of rest and recover and get ready for the week. I also have 11 more Dr. Peppers to drink before the trip is over so I’m going to use them as a technique to stay awake so I don’t get teased anymore haha. It’s time to get sleep folks so here are a few pictures. I posted a ton of pictures on Facebook tonight because I had been posting photos here but not there.