An alligator's smile

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to dogs who can hedgehog again.”
Luke 2:13-14, more or less

Where were you this morning? Did you see the heavens open? Did you hear the angels rejoice?

I know one dog who did.

Ellie had her final visit to the surgeon today and Dr. Munjar said the x-rays showed a nice boring joint, meaning she had healed nicely and we can start easing her back into her normal routine. Ellie and I celebrated with a few hedeghog throws in the backyard before I had to head in to work.

If you’re in the Portland area and need surgery for your pet, I highly recommend Dr. Munjar and the Veterinary Surgical Center of Portland. Dr. Munjar has a great (doggy) bedside manner and explained everything very clearly and did great work. He provided detailed instructions for her post-op recovery and everything proceeded just like he said. From the moment we met him we felt we had made the right decision. The staff is friendly and knowledgable and took good care of us.

If I ever need surgery I can only hope to be in such good hands!

What say? I can't hear you, my head is turned!

Ellie did really well during her recovery, but she did develop a coping mechanism — if I gave her a command she didn’t want to follow, she’d turn her head slightly to the side. As if to say, “I’m not being willfully disobedient, it’s just that I can’t hear you, what with my head turned like this and all.” It was such a subtle gesture I didn’t catch on at first, but after a while it became unmistakable.

I suppose I should be insulted at my dog’s estimate of my intelligence, but it was so cute it just made me laugh. She’d always obey if my tone indicated she needed to, so I let it slide.

For some reason, baby hedgehog isn't as pleased as the rest of us to see Ellie off of bed rest

Oh Ellie!

I don’t know much about hedgehogs but they must not be too bright. Ellie loves to lie on her back like a fallen log and sneak up on them and they fall for it every single time. Ellie has a strict catch-and-release policy so you’d think by now they’d have figured out her strategy.

Oh baby hedgehog, how I've longed for this moment!

One nice thing about how well Ellie is healing is that she can now join me in the backyard like before, minus the running and jumping. That even means the return of baby hedgehog to outside time, as long as she doesn’t get too rambunctious. She had tossed it to me here, wanting to play like in days of old, but we’re not ready for that yet.

We’ve adapted baby hedgehog play since she first got her surgery, matching it to her allowed activity level. We started off with a game where she didn’t need to move anything but her head, to now where she can be more mobile but doesn’t need to run and jump.

Ellie makes her return to the hardwood

Ellie went to the surgeon on Thursday for her follow-up x-rays and he was delighted with the progress she’s made in the six weeks since her leg surgery. Everything is healing the way he hoped and she goes back for her final x-rays in another six weeks.

So while she still isn’t allowed to run and play the way she’d like, we’re headed in the right direction and today was the first day I didn’t keep her penned up when I left for work. She is allowed to use the stairs now and so has free reign of the house, finally able to rise up from the basement and join me on the main floor. And the bedroom on the top floor at night, this morning I literally woke up covered by all the pets but Emma!

Her walks have also resumed, slowly increasing in 5 minute intervals as she builds back her stamina and muscle mass. We don’t get too far, she’s eager to get reacquainted with old friends and say hello to you little bush, and you little tree, and you blade of grass, and you little leaf, and …

I’ve been working a lot of long hours for work, including many nights and weekends, so I haven’t been able to play with her and the cats as much as I’d like. Or as often as Ellie would like, given by the number of times I get pelted by hedgehogs as I work. Thankfully things should be slowing down in the next couple of days.

Welcome back, Ellie! All the pets are zonked out around me in my office at the moment, some sleeping more quietly than others. Even the hedgehogs are enjoying a moment of peace.

Ellie before her surgery

I took Ellie back to the surgeon on Thursday to get her sutures out and they were really pleased with her progress. She’s feeling much better and ready to get back to hedgehogging, but unfortunately for her she still has another six weeks of taking it easy before she goes back for x-rays to see if the bones have healed.

So we’ll keep her on a light dose of sedatives until then, just enough to take her edge off, as she’s more than ready to run and jump and do all the things she shouldn’t do yet. But by and large, our girl remains as sweet as ever and has been more patient with her recovery than I expected.

Don't be fooled baby hedgehog, that's no log you lie beside!
Look at those sharp teeth! Chop chop!

Oh no! I can't watch! Run, baby hedgehog, run!

Oh the hedgehogganity!

These pictures are from earlier in the year, Ellie remains on strict bed rest although her recovery is going well. She’s finished with the ice pack treatments, which she didn’t like but accepted well enough.

She remains on medication, after several unsuccessful attempts with other foods, we’ve settled on hotdogs as the preferred delivery mechanism. We tried various cheeses but she kept breaking apart the cheese and spitting out the pills. It’s a pretty impressive skill really and Ellie proved a quick study. The hotdogs, however, are so eagerly accepted that Templeton remains the undisputed master of pill befuddlery.

I’m happy to report that Ellie’s ligament surgery yesterday was successful and she was able to come home today. It takes a couple of months for the bones to fully heal so she has a long recuperation ahead, and it’s going to be hard keeping her on bed rest that long, but we’re looking forward to her being whole again.

She gets medication for a few days to manage the intense pain of the early recovery period, as well as some other meds, and cold compresses to minimize swelling. She really doesn’t like the cold on her bare skin so I cradled her in my arms while my wife held the compress. I had to smile when eventually we heard the sounds of snoring.

Good to have you home, Ellie. Good to have you home.

We picked up an exercise pen at a local pet store, which for Ellie will be an anti-exercise pen. It’s necessary to keep her off her legs as she’ll tolerate pain as long as it means she gets to play. Resisting her gaze I feel like a modern day Perseus, except Ellie is the anti-medusa, her sad puppy dog eyes will turn you to mush.

She’s tolerated this all pretty well, and still has a ways to go, but oh how happy she will be when she is back on her feet.

Ellie got X-rays on her legs today and we have a surgical consult scheduled in a couple of weeks. A lengthy recuperation period of no physical activity follows no matter the outcome, so hedgehogging is right out for a long while yet. And while she’s lost a lot of weight since we got her, she still needs to shed a few pounds, so her food is going to get cut back a bit more. My wife’s been sleeping in the basement with her to keep her company while I’m with the cats upstairs. For a dog that loves to eat and snuggle and hedgehog, that’s a tough pill to swallow.

The basement stairs are blocked off but somehow she slipped past our defenses this morning as I heard the familiar tappa-tappa-tappa of her claws on the hardwood. I gave her the “bed” command so she’d at least lie down in her bed and rest, but she jumped up into bed with me instead. I guess that’s on me for not specifying which bed. She snuggled up to me and Scout and Sam joined in and we all enjoyed the next hour until my alarm rang out and ruined the moment.

I feel so bad knowing how difficult the road ahead will be for her, so to make myself feel better I’ll post a picture from happier times.

Ellie’s leg woes continue. She’s had a bit of a limp so I took her to the vet today and she thinks it might be a torn ligament. Ellie is getting anti-inflammatory pills for a couple of days and then she will probably have to go back in to see what comes next. She’s isolated to the basement now with no activity, not even a walk, and certainly no hedgehogging.

Poor girl.

Oh Ellie! I giggle every time I look at this picture.

After a cold start, we’ve had an unusually warm winter this year in the Northwest. Last weekend was warm and dry enough that I let the cats get some time in the backyard, joining Ellie and I as we played hedgehog and I trimmed some of the plants.

Outside hedgehog involves more running and as Ellie tires, her tongue starts hanging out farther and farther until eventually you can glimpse the Great Black Spot, first observed by Galileo Galilei in 1609 courtesy of his advancements in telescope design. I’ve learned that when the Great Black Spot appears, Ellie is getting pretty tired and has to make the difficult choice between squeaking hedgehog and breathing. In her state of hedgehoggephoria, I can see in her eyes she’s not always going to make the right choice, so that’s when it’s time to stop and take a breather.

This intermission would be a good time for entertainment, I’ve thought about putting the cats in little cheerleader outfits, but even I’m not that brave.

As you can see from the picture, a lot of NFL receivers could learn from Ellie’s dedication to her craft, never taking her eyes off the prize until the hedgehog is secured.

You’ll just have to take my word for it.

I wasn’t the only one playing through pain while hedgehogging on Sunday. Ellie has had a bit of a limp lately in one of her rear legs, something that happens on occasion so her legs may be a weak point. It wasn’t serious like the time she sprained her ankle, and she played hedgehog with the same gusto as she always does.

I’m not accusing her of faking, mind you, even though she was running fine when she took the field. You just don’t feel the pain when you’re in a state of hedgehoggephoria.

I feel a little bad that, in the run up to the Super Bowl, there was nothing said in the sports world about Drew Brees and scarcely a word about Peyton Manning. All anyone could talk about was whether I’d be able to play Hedgehog on Super Sunday. After visiting Ridgefield so much over Christmas break, I must have moved the heavy telephoto lens around a bit too much as I tweaked my right shoulder.

It only hurts when I need to raise my arm to put on a jacket, or, yes, throw hedgehog. Hedgehog practices were closed to the media so all anyone had to go on were the injury reports which listed the shoulder as sore.

Would he play or wouldn’t he?

The gasps when I took the field were nothing compared to when I first rolled out and fired a bullet downfield catching Ellie in stride. Left-handed. You see, I am not only the world’s first and foremost hedgehogger, I’m also the world’s only ambidextrous hedgehogger.

That, my friends, is why I’ll be enshrined in the Hedgehog Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

Unsubstantiated reports say the hedgehog retreated into its burrow not because it saw its shadow, but another dark form, one that waited to toss it about willy-nilly.

Preposterous. Who ever heard of such a thing?

Congratulations Ellie!

Today is the one year anniversary of the day we adopted her at the Humane Society and brought her home. I’d tell her how lucky she is we found her but I know we’re the lucky ones, we got a real sweetheart!

This picture of our serious-looking girl was from the snow late last year, I had just gotten home and took a few quick pictures before we lost the light completely. She stayed when I told her to, but she wasn’t interested in pictures, she just wanted to get on to playing, and play we did! Turns out hedgehogging is especially fun in the snow and we played until we could barely stand.

She and I spent yesterday enjoying treats and hedgehogging and snuggling and watching football, which wouldn’t be a bad way to spend today either.

We had a sunny and cold Christmas this year instead of our normal wet or occasional white one. I had been hoping to play with Ellie in the snow since it was playing with Porter from next door in last year’s big snow that started me thinking it was time for us to adopt a dog, but no such luck.

On Tuesday, I checked the weather before heading up to Ridgefield and saw the rain was supposed to make a comeback in the afternoon. It didn’t rain but as I started my last trip around the auto tour at the end of the day, I had to smile at the few flakes that fell, hardly enough to call even a flurry, my first snowflakes of the season. The snow picked up as I drove around but it wasn’t until I got near the end that it was falling hard enough that I started to get a little concerned. After snapping some quick pics of baby nutria and a juvenile heron in the snow, I started for home.

Unfortunately our Subaru is in the shop this week and I was in a rental, so I was without four-wheel drive, but I got home without incident, the roads being fairly clear and getting into our driveway proved the biggest challenge. My timing proved fortuitous as the snow continued to fall through the evening and I just missed the worst of the traffic.

I took Ellie out to play in the snow as soon as I got home, either on our walk or with other dogs in the park or hedgehogging on a snow-covered turf in the backyard. She was having the time of her life and after a couple of hours of vigorous play we called it a night.

Both of us took it pretty easy the next day.

We had a nice relaxing Christmas this year. I’m off from work for a couple of weeks so I got up before sunrise and went to Ridgefield as I have most days this week. Today, though, instead of staying all day at the refuge I came home for the afternoon. The cats were treated with extra salmon treats while Ellie got a new baby hedgehog to go along with the other two. One of the older ones has been designated for outdoor use but has seen so much love that its face is starting to fall off.

New baby hedgehog was a huge hit and an excited Ellie squeaked it all day long, taking a break only to toss it at us in hopes of play. She finally tuckered out and is sleeping beside me at the moment.

She’s posing here beside our bedraggled tree with the new hedgehog. The eagle-eyed observer may notice that there are two new hedgehogs in the picture, the toy at Ellie’s feet and a new ornament that my wife made in Ellie’s honor.

The eagle-eyed observer may also note that Emma is sitting underneath the tree. She has not been climbing the tree so much since the ornaments went on, although she did break one of the colored glass balls and beloved gold Santa took a beating.