Hi Everyone,

Special Shout Out to Will and Ali for the Christmas Mitten with Love!  Thank you so much!  Big smooches to both of you!  I hope your week is going great.  Mine sure is.  I am meeting new friends all the time around here!

This is my new friend Macie, a mini-goldendoodle.  Another cousin of my foster-sisters. She came over for a sleepover.  Well, as you know with most sleepovers, sleeping is the last thing on our minds!  She is 4 1/2 months old and a whopping 20 pounds.  Me being a mature (ahem) 7 months old, I was showing her the ropes.  She plays ruff-n-tuff and non-stop, my kinda girl. She even lost a tooth while playing (okay, it was a baby tooth and just hanging there waiting to drop out).

Here I am showing her how to share the bone.  FM says I was actually stealing it.... we agreed to disagree about that.  There was no growling involved.  If the bone were spaghetti, it would have been a Lady and the Tramp kinda picture.

We decided playing in the tub would be fun too.  My foster-sisters taught me to drink from the running faucet as it is nice and cold.   And I found out Macie likes to get blow dried with the hair dryer, just like I do!  (FM does that to me every morning because I like to hang out in the bathroom while she is getting ready for work, and sit and wait to be fluffed up.)

It sure is a good thing that I am going to have a new sister in my home, because with all the dogs coming and going around here, I've rather gotten used to having company around and love all of the excitement these last couple of weeks.  My new mom and sister even came over Wednesday night to play with me and brought all of us new toys.  How cool is that!  Mom says she thinks of me all day long and can't wait to get back from her trip to take me home for good.  Only one more week here for me then new home and new name.  I am going to be called Stanley.  We all think it fits my goofy personality.  So FM is trying to remember to use my new name, but messes up constantly.  

Well, that's all for now.  Loving the warmer weather for my walks!

Stanley Max-a-Million

Hi Everyone!  I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!  I sure did.

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Mini-doodle Ruby and to Kelly for sending me Christmas Mittens!  Thank you SO MUCH!  I definitely feel the Christmas Joy!

The last few days have been great here.  I got my own Christmas Goose to play with.  

Additionally, we have a house guest for a week.  Former foster Apollo came to hang out with us while his family is on vacation.  I thought Kraelyn, the gold goldendoodle was big until I met this guy!  FM says he was huge 9 months old 15 months ago, now he is just a Moose in disguise!

I've met my match for playing. For the first 2 days, I didn't think Apollo liked me as he kept growling at me.  FM slowly introduced us on Saturday, and he even met me through the crate without issues, but my puppy exhuberance outside of the crate was too much for the guy as I kept getting up in his face and barking at him trying to get him to play.  Well, today, my persistance paid off.  We were in the office with FM and I kept approaching him and barking at him.  FM kept telling me to knock it off as he was growling.  Finally, I laid down and he came over to me.  I was nice and still and submissive on my side while he did the requisite sniffing again. He laid down by me so I started pawing at him. First his legs, then his face. His tail started wagging, and Viola! We were playing! Whoo Hoo.  Now he knows I am a funny guy and not aggressive.  So for the next 20 minutes, FM let us play on the floor and mouth each other.  FM had to keep me from getting too excited and she would not let me wrestle and kept her hand in my collar.  We played great! No growling from either of us!  Geez, I wish I was totally healthy.  Apollo and I would have a great time running and wrestling outside!

Here I am looking up to him like a big brother.  We could not have done this 2 days ago.

So, the bottom line is I have to learn how to do proper introductions with other dogs.  Apollo did lots of growling at me and I did not respect his signals, so had FM not had a hold of me, I could have gotten myself into trouble. I did get his message when he harshly snapped at me a couple of times, but FM prefers I learn restraint and respect lip curls and low growls.

I also am getting out for my 5 minute walks a couple of times a day.  When we get back, I like to sit in the front yard and observe.  In fact, I plant myself and FM can't get me to come, even for treats.  I'm so bored with inside life, especially in this nice weather!    This morning was my third walk using a Gentle Leader.  I made it the whole way without struggling to get it off!  FM is very proud of me.  I still pull a bit, but I am MUCH better than on flat collar.  FM knows I'll be a superstar with lots of training.

That's all for now!

Super Max

Hi everyone,

Yup, it happened. I am in LOVE! In LOVE with cuddling on the BIG BED! All I can say is OMG! I love all those pillows. I rolled over on my back, let out a big sigh and said to my self, "Max, you're living large now!" I've been watching my foster-sisters up there for over 5 weeks and just wishing I could join them. FM kept telling me, soon, I will be up there too. Well, a few things happened in the past 10 days so I got my wish, though I still have to sleep in my crate at night. My daily therapy is much more comfortable on the bed than on the floor.

When I went in for my regular Monday night bandage change on 12/5, they unwrapped my leg and found a little infection brewing on my shoulder where the fixator nuts and bolts were digging into my skin. It was oozing brown gunk and a bit torn up and raw. We got that cleaned up and rebandaged. The next day, I ripped open all the bandaging so I could lick the wound as it was bugging the heck outta me. FM wrapped me back up, but I tore into again on Tuesday. Just to make a point, I ate a couple of the surgical sponges that were packing the fixator. What can I say! I am constantly hungry!

On Thursday morning I went back so Dr. R could check me out. She took some pictures of my leg and decided I was healing nicely so she performed surgery on me and removed all of the hardware, did some fixup work on the shoulder skin, and even did my snip-snip surgery. I am SOOOOO much happier now not lugging all of the stainless steel around. As for the sponges, FM found two pieces of a sponge a few days later when they came out --I'll spare you the details of how she found them, suffice it to say my pipes are working well this past week...Tee Hee

Here's an imaging picture of what the hardware looked like at the elbow.

I started to lick my shoulder since there was no bandaging after this last surgery, so I had to wear the "Cone of Shame".

But alas, I gained new skills and found out I can play ball with it on! Check me out here for some live action!  I certainly know how to entertain myself.

So after 6 days of the cone of shame, FM finally got the brilliant idea to flip it. (What took you so long, FM!!!) Now I am wearing the "Cape of Power!" and she calls me "Super Max". "There's no need to fear, Super Max is here!" Okay, ripped off from Underdog, but it works.

I am also gaining weight now that the roundworms are coming under control. I had my second dose of meds on Monday and I am 47 pounds. FM thinks I am going to be a good sized boy and tall, around 80 pounds or more by the time I am full grown in another 12-18 months as my paws are pretty big.

I have been getting more freetime out of the crate this week with FM home when my foster-sisters are outside or in another room. That is really helping to give me a break from crate life. I still cannot run or play with the girls. My therapy has me on leash restriction for 7 more weeks. Ugh. When we go outside, I pull like crazy to get out there. I want to run so bad, FM has to have a tight grip on the leash. I will attack any leaf blowing across the lawn or grab for any stick in the vicinity. I feel great now (probably from the pain meds), so don't understand the restrictions. FM is still doing PT on my leg twice a day too.

Next Monday night I will go back for one last check and to have my stitches removed from my shoulder and my last set of vaccinations. Then FM can give me a much needed bath as I have not been able to have one since coming in to RAGOM-land due to my leg. After that appt, I will be able to give everyone an idea of what on-going therapy I will need to complete my rehab and the prognosis for my leg function.

More after Monday's doctor appointment. Until then, more snuggling on the big bed!

Super Max

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  Mine was pretty sedate as you could probably have guessed.  I got to hang out in a crate outside for 3 hours last Friday in the nice weather while FM was doing some last minute yardwork.  It was fun to have a change of scenery and watch the neighbor kids jumping on the trampoline and my foster-sisters chasing around the yard. Sure wish I could have joined them...I was appointed block captain for the afternoon so here I am doing Neighborhood Watch.

I went back to the clinic on Monday afternoon for my weekly bandage change. Everyone was so excited to see me, and to tell you the truth, I love going there too!  I got hugs and kisses from everyone and I was so excited to see people I wagged my tail uncontrollably.  The past 3 weeks of being home without much excitement has been rough.  At least weekly outings to the vet help.  Walking in there I feel like "Norm!" from Cheers. Everyone knows my name!

Dr. W. and Dr. B. both stopped by during the bandage change to take a look at my elbow and do some flexing and extending exercises to check my progress.  I am only flexing to 90-95 degrees right now, but we still have at least 3 weeks of PT to see if I can flex more.  I can pretty much get full extension out of it.

Here is a picture of my hardware without any bandages so you can see what I have going on.  Pretty wild, huh?!

Then Jessica got me all bandaged up again; this time I am sporting Vikings Purple.  I sure hope that brings some good luck for the next game.  Last Sunday was another bummer of a game, but I did get to snuggle on the couch with FM to watch it, so that was great.  

It turns out that I have some dreaded roundworms too, so I am on meds to rid myself of those pesky guys.  I will have another dose of meds in 2 weeks and then a recheck to see if all is good.  

I have put on a few pounds during my recovery and am now up to 40 pounds and looking super-fine.  I am still on the lean side, which is good for my leg too.  My "walking" only consists of going outside for potty breaks.  I am limping on the leg but will put full weight on it, and even try to bolt from FM when outside on breaks to do a puppy-zoom-zoom.  But alas, the leash is short, so I don't cover any ground.   FM sympathizes with me having all of this energy and no where to go with it.  She says I am such an incredible boy and handling the crating like a trooper.  I am a bit of a whirling dervish when sitting with FM on the floor or on the couch because I want to play and throw balls and bones around and leap at them.  The only time I am still outside of the crate is when we are doing my therapy on the floor and FM has one leg over my waist and belly to hold me down. Don't get me wrong here, I love the massages and everything, but I really want to PLAY!  When we go outside, I am so excited I pull hard on the leash to get out there.  FM thinks when my rehab is done at 12 weeks or so that I am just gonna BUST LOOSE ALL OVER THE PLACE and really show off my puppy energy.  

I love to chew on various toys and bones to pass the time.  Here's me going to town on a bone -- purple bandage and all.

Training wise, I am making progress on Stay, which FM is really happy about. I am highly food motivated and love people so training should be a fun experience for me. FM can't work on Come with me because I will break into a run or leap for her if she doesn't hold on to me.  But I respond well to my name, so FM thinks I'll ace that when the time comes.

That's about it for me for this week.  More PT and resting in the crate is on tap for this week.  Cross your paws that I get a little more flexibility in my elbow over the next week too.

Max