** I only got the Title of this note written before I had to handle other things; Partially to keep myself busy and partially to do my part at work. I still want to memorialize the pre-knife stuff but I'll add the post-op info too. The point is, my emotions are all different now so much of the meat will be lost. Imagine the difference when interviewing a man who just escaped a burning building versus waiting a couple of days and trying to capture the real emotion... fugetaboutit.

I took Sunny in just around 8am and as per usual, he was terrified. As a matter of fact, he was terrified when we were a mile away from the clinic because he knows the route.

SIDE NOTE: Sunshine loves the car and going for a cruise but lately he's only ended up in the Vet's office so I'm not sure how many more times he'll willfully jump in.

He's a good boy but he gets so darn nervous, because nothing fun EVER happens for him there. It may be good for him but try telling that to a 2 year old when you're trying to put medicine in their eyes for Pink Eye; It may be good for them but if they don't know it, it might as well be purposeful torture.

Where was I? Okay... So we're hanging out in the little doggy room, waiting for the Doc to come in. It was kinda nice because this was more of a doggy *suite* than a room (Note to self: If I go to a doctor for a follow-up and I get the huge, nicely decorated room, get the "F" outta there!). His regular doc was not going to do the surgery so we both sat with baited breath (is that right?) as the door knob twisted. In walked a very nice, older man with a great disposition. Dr. Connelly. He inspired confidence immediately. He is the only doctor that has not asked to muzzle Sunshine (Sunny is not mean but he is 100 pounds and scared so... whatever). He let Sunshine "rush" him and we all settled down and he gave me the poop on what to expect. Sunny had been nervous and made a mess on the floor so I handed Dr. Connelly the poop too. :)

Sunshine got a little injection to calm him down before they took him away from me. I got to sit and read with him for 15 minutes or so while he calmed down and then he was gone. I was kinda sad but handling it well until I pulled up to my driveway. I still had his ball in my pocket and his leash on my lap and I just welled up in tears. There was no pooch to greet me at the gate and my brain began flipping through memories of what we've done together and the realization that we may never do any of those things again began to set in.

It's here I should note that I am NOT a psycho animal owner who let's his life revolve around his pet. But I'm also not one with ice running through the veins. He's my pal and has been for a long time and that means quite a lot to me. Remove the label please. Thank you.

The doctor called right before he made the cut so I could guesstimate how long it would be before I could expect that he'd be done. If all went well it should be ~1.5 hours but it could go to 3 hours if he ran into unexpected problems. After two hours I began to get nervous and at 2.5 hours I couldn't take it anymore so I called to get the skinny on things. It turned out that Sunshine had been out of surgery for 40 minutes but the doc wanted to wait until he came further out of the anesthesia effects before letting me know how things went. Things had gone good! There's got to be a word that means something between relief and elation and that's the word I would use right now (if only I had a broader vocabulary).

I needed to wait a couple more hours while he recovered and they observed him. I picked him up just about 6pm and the doctor filled me in on what had transpired and what to expect over the next weeks.

I had to take him to the Emergency Vet for overnight observation and while they were all very nice, Sunshine had just about reached his limit for me taking him to places other than HOME, only to have him irritated by temperature taking, blood draws, etc. "Sorry bud, this really for your own good". When I picked him up in the morning he was kinda glad to see me but I'm sure he had reservations about getting into the car with me again; Would I take him to some other sadistic, no tennis ball having group of people? I swear I heard the canine version of, "Cirkey!, him again?!?".

He's been home now for a couple of days and looks unbelievably good. It's a struggle to keep him settled down because he's all ready to play ball but I'm not allowed to even contemplate it for two weeks.

So that's it, my brief (hah!) story of where we are so far with Sunshine. When we finish his meds and get to toss the first ball, I'll pop back in with an update.