Sunday brunch?

You know how normal people have lazy Sundays where they go for brunch with friends and read the paper and all of that fun stuff? Well, I have a Billy dog so I spend Sunday morning at the vet.

In all fairness, this wasn't actually an unscheduled trip but he did try his very hardest to make it so. Careering around in his normal break-neck fashion resulted in some giant chunks breaking off his cone on Saturday night. When I jumped in the shower the next morning I switched it out for the slightly smaller one so that he couldn't get the whole thing off while out of my sight. Unfortunately, he managed to maneuver his tricky little head out far enough to actually pull out two of his drains (and a couple of stitches) all by himself. I had no idea that there was another two inches of rubber buried in his leg, but there you are, you learn something new every day.

Off we go to the vet, with me rather sheepishly anticipating having to confess that I let the Bilbo start their job for them! Turns out, he was hoping he could just get it all done himself because he REALLY wasn't planning on letting the vet do, well, anything. Off he charged with the nurse, all wags and smiles, next thing you know, out comes the vet. In her words, Billy was doing "alligator rolls" to stop her getting at his leg. Yes, the flailing of my beastie bears comparison with that of an 800lb reptile.

In order to get the drains out, he had to be - wait for it - sedated.

Ok, so I know I shouldn't laugh but just look at that splattered hound. He managed to get four steps from the door and then collapsed.

He's also mightily confused by the giant cone that we've resorted to in order  to protect his stitches (and the two staples in place of the stitches he pulled out). He's fairly convinced that he can walk right next to the coffee table without knocking anything off and has no idea that he's in danger of decapitating me with each slobbery kiss. He does recognize that he can't lie down in certain positions so he's doing a lot of whimpering and sitting around looking puzzled. And naturally, he has already mangled his replacement cone, which is being held together with copious amounts of tape.

The stitches have to come out next Monday and the vet has already notified me that he's going to have to be sedated again for it. Oh the length of my vet bills...