Neutered.

It's official- the boys have been neutered.

Their appointment was last Friday. We had the procedures done at the local SNAP vet in our area ( http://www.snapus.org/ ) and I would highly recommend their services. They had actually just moved to a brand new location about 10 minutes from our house- very nice, clean, big waiting room with several exam rooms. They even had the separate entrance doors for dogs and cats :)

We dropped the boys off at 7:30 am and picked them up at 4:45 pm . I was very surprised at how hyper the boys were when we came to pick them up -they were jumping all over each other and us. I figured they'd be zonked out, but they seemed okay. However, I could tell Coop was feeling pretty horrible when we got in the car because he immediately sat down by the floor boards (something he never does) and refused to get up on the seat. Bear seemed fine, in fact, he ate his and Cooper's sweet potato bones that we had brought for them. I don't blame him- they hadn't eaten for nearly 24 hours.

We got home, and Cooper pretty much immediately threw up and then submerged himself under the couch, where he did not surface until the next day. Bear sat on the couch the whole night with us but would keep changing positions and seemed generally uncomfortable- both of the boys were whimpering pretty much all night. It was hard to sit there and listen to their whimpers... knowing that I had more drugs for them, just couldn’t give them anymore until the next morning.

We were also given e-collars, or "cones" or "cones of death" from the Vet in case they start licking their wounds, which we almost had to use on Cooper several times, and presented a problem for bed time. I didn't really want to stick the boys in their kennels with the cone of death on, they were already scared enough without adding to the problem, so we came to the decision to let them sleep out in the house... and Brian would sleep on the couch. Yep, what a good doggy daddy to sleep on the couch to watch the boys (Cooper mainly). Brian did say that Cooper eventually came out and settled in a corner of the couch so he could share the pillow with Brian - so sweet. Bear ended up sleeping under our bed, so I slept in the bed. Bear ended up pacing a lot of the night so I don't think he got much sleep - either did I. It was a rough night.

However, the next day was much better. We got Cooper to eat breakfast and take some medicine, so he wasn't whimpering and actually laid on the couch, instead of under it, all day. Bear pretty much acted like nothing was wrong and was walking and jumping all over the place. We had my mom and some of our friends over to move out an old hot tub on our deck, so the boys had visitors too. They both did pretty well with people over- they wanted to play the entire time- so I knew they were feeling better.

Today was the best day yet- Cooper is off the couch completely and running around just like Bear. Our biggest problem now is keeping them inside (they're not allowed outside as they are more prone to infection out there). I think we are out of the woods and they should be completely okay by Friday.