So I collected Kita after her spaying operation.
She staggered very slowly up the corridor in the surgery and looked very poorly. I called her name and got a tail wag, but she couldn't lift her head. Heartbreaking.
Rather fetchingly attired in a doggy version of the surgical gown, she looked extremely sorry for herself.
The vet kindly carried her to the car for me and I carefully drove her home armed with a couple of syringes of pain killer.
For the rest of the day she dozed fitfully. Whenever she woke up she would look around for me and if I wasn't very close by she'd atempt to get to me. As this meant me lifting her off and on the sofa each time, I decided to give up any attempts of actually doing anything and cosied up on the sofa with her. She made sure I couldn't leave by pinning me down with her front paws and head. I watched a lot of television yesterday.
Later on she perked up a little and wanted to go in the garden. I clipped on her lead, just in case, and we took a walk to the end of the garden so she could have a wee. But she refused to walk back, meaning I had to carry her again. This little rigmarole happened rather a lot yesterday.
The vet's scales registered her at 12.7kg, a little over the top end weight for a female Shiba (but not overweight at all).
Yesterday continued in much the same vein: doze, wake, insist I take her off the sofa, stand looking vacant for an indefinite time, wobble a bit, insist I take her in the garden - sometimes just to eat grass, give me puppy-eyes to get back onto the sofa, pin me down so I can't go missing, doze again...
At about 8pm the vet phoned me to see how she was doing and to ensure she'd had her painkillers. Fearing a major battle, I'd put off giving them to her and, also she'd shown no particular signs of being in pain. But I gave them to her and almost instantly she got comfortable on her side for the first time, stretched out a little and had a good long sleep.
We went to bed at about midnight but she was very restless so I got little sleep.
At 2am she woke me from a fitful sleep by jumping off the bed! Argh! She wanted a drink. I switched on the light expecting to see blood everywhere but instead discovered she'd cleverly removed the vest. And she'd done so without undoing any of the velcro straps. I was most impressed as loops went around each leg and her tail.
Getting it back on was not easy.
Yes, I should have put her in her crate. But it's put away somewhere and I am not sure where.
We're due back at the vet later this morning.
And I need a doctor for my now very bad back.