[Dailydrool] Watson week 4 update

[Katie Strobel]

Hello everyone,
Watson is busily napping in his x-pen (thank doG for those miraculous
sedatives) so he's asked that I write in to let everyone know how he
is doing. Life has been so much better since we got those sedatives. I
think Watson isn't so tortured by spending endless days alone in his
x-pen because he now sleeps most of the day. I am not nearly as
stressed out listening to those heart wrenching cries coming from the
living room in the evening, and my parents (whose house we are staying
in for the time being) are much happier now that they aren't awoken at
5am every day by a crying hound. We've been keeping Watson calm
because of that cyst - trying to get rid of it still. The wound has
healed very nicely. His knee is still a bit swollen but it's getting
better I think. Watson is ready to be released but it's still two more
weeks until we can even think about letting him run or jump. Yesterday
I took him for his first walk since surgery. It was really hot - 88
degrees I believe - when we left the house. Our block splits in the
middle so I only took him around half the block. We moved really slow
- I think some of the reason for going so slow was that it was so
warm, but I also that he is out of shape now, and this knee is not
used to so much activity. We made it about half way around before  I
could tell that I had probably pushed it too much. SO then we rested a
bit in the shade and continued nice and slowly around the rest of the
block.

We got to our neighbor's house that borders our back fence, and they
had their dog out in the yard unleashed. Our dogs and this dog run
back and forth all day snarling and barking at each other through the
fence so when he came bolting towards us I was sure that he was going
to eat Watson alive. The only thing I could do was stand there because
I was completely unarmed - I didn't even have a cell phone. Watson
weighs 55 pounds so picking him up in a hurry and evading attack was
also not an option. The dog was fine though - it's a Sharpei (sp?)
that's a little smaller than Watson and he just wanted to sniff....it
did scare me though...the owners assured me that he was nice and just
curious, so I let the dogs smell each other. Watson's been bit harshly
multiple times before by my parent's border collie so he's a bit shy
when it comes to fast acting curious dogs, but he did fine, and when
they were finished saying hello, we continued on our walk. Watson got
home after our 10 minute walk and slept for the rest of the evening so
I think today we may have to shorten the journey until we get his
stamina back up to strength.

In other news, Watson has declared war on miller moths - we are still
walking him on a leash so whenever he sees a miller he practically
rips my arm off going after it. He chomps it and swallows those
millers so quickly - yet he can't even catch a milk bone when I
underhand toss it at him....odd.

We have also discovered that Watson LOVES to drink from the hose. We
just turn it on kind of low and he'll slurp from it until he's
satisfied. After he's done drinking if we start to spray the lawn, he
attacks the water, barks at it and gets soaked trying to "kill" the
hose - it's the most hilarious thing I've ever seen!

Drool and snooters to all those who need it.

Katie and Watson (who needs milkbones when I can hab moths insted?