January 2, 2015

White Dog and the Army lined up across the living room and nuzzled Zsofia as Steve led her out to Pumpkin early on this cold, grey morning. Then they filled the windows and front door to send her off with howls, honest-to-dog ancestral HOWLS, of protest and protection. Sachi sounded like an infant screaming.

Today Zsofia was spayed. Two days short of being six months old, she was excited and thought she and dad were going for a ride...until, Steve told me later, she heard the WDA calling to her. She wooed back from her position in the car and continued the monologue into Dr. Julia's office.

Here at home the WDA paced like expectant parents. Everypup was on edge and each time the phone rang, it was met with bedlam. "Relax," Steve told them. "She will be fine. Zso will be home by the end of the afternoon.

I didn't have too much time to worry. The Baby had, in her boredom during the night, chewed a gopher-sized hole in her crate mattress cover and enjoyed reconfiguring the orthopedic foam inside. My task was to find something to stuff into the void and to oversew a sturdy patch on the cover before she got home and needed to rest upon it. These pads are expensive, I groused as I hand sewed the patch with heavy duty carpet thread.

When Steve brought her in the door at four, the WDA went wild. The poor girl was still groggy and more than a little overwhelmed by the sniffing and nuzzling and questioning woos. Neither she nor the rest of the Army like the inflatable donut around her neck but she does look like a construction worker gone wild in her high visibility green t-shirt.

Zsofia will need rest tonight and a LIGHT meal (in this she is mightily disappointed...NO breakfast and now, a skimpy dinner), but things went completely smoothly. Steve believes that our timing was perfect; Yo was starting to show a little more interest than normal in the backside of our Little Zso.

It will be interesting to see how our baby girl reacts as hair begins to grow back and stitches start to itch...and it will be tough to keep the wrestling matches on hold for the next few days. But for now, we are all home, and safe, and surrounded by good energy.