Lenny post-op

Lenny made it home from surgery and has been pretty zonked, but overall doing well! He is still on some pretty heavy painkillers, but every day he is showing more and more of his personality through the haze. He gets tired really easily and spends most of the day sleeping. Part of the reason for this is that the hardest thing for him to do is to get up and down, so he just stays put. The first morning home, we were a little concerned because it actually took him a few minutes to decide to come in the kitchen to eat breakfast - a first for him!
He still isn't using that leg - he's supposed to start "toe-touching" in a few days, and about a week after that, start putting more weight on it. After about a month, he'll be walking with a limp, and after about three months, the surgeon said he'll be about as good as he ever will be.

His leg and his butt look really funny being shaved on one side. We had no idea he had so many freckles! The bruising in the picture is just about gone, and he'll get his stitches out probably at the end of the week. The stitches are one long piece of thread, and one side has started to work its way out, but the cut looks like it's healing very well.
Our surgeon, Dr. Koch, was awesome. He explained everything in a lot of detail to us, with a bone/ligament knee joint replica. (He even let Lenny sniff it to examine it!) He explained that this surgery, while not always necessary in people, is necessary (and usually more successful) for dogs usually because their legs are shaped and held differently. It should also help prevent a lot of arthritis that would happen if he didn't operate and clean out the joint - he said this aspect was maybe even more important than aligning the knee correctly again! So we felt even better about going ahead with the surgery.

We've been spoiling Lenny a little bit since he got home from the hospital... Chuck gives him his 4 pills at night with a cracker and peanut butter! (Mr. "No people food EVER!" is a softie!) I got him a few new toys at PetSmart as well as a pig's ear and a Dingo treat (a bone with "meat" in the middle). One of the toys I got was "Bobo" from the cute PetSmart commercial with the dachshund on it. It's a great toy that makes two different squeaky sounds on either end. Lenny has showed the most interest in the pig's ear, but gets really tired after about ten minutes and falls asleep chewing on it!