5 weeks

I don't consider this to be an actual post since it's just keeping track of my knee surgery recovery for my own purposes.

Anyway, this week:

(did I mention Zluta and I going to see the Marching Band Parade the Saturday before last? That was a two mile walk)

Friday: first dance class after the 2nd surgery (at 4 weeks). I danced danced danced for about an hour, taking a break after every three to five dances. The thing though is that I was for a lot of that time dancing better than I have in the whole six years I've been going to this dance class. My legs were not lagging, so I didn't have to fight for the rhythm and I didn't find myself on the wrong foot (hardly ever, until the last few minutes when I decided I was tired). I could follow the leader better on dances I didn't know well and I did two of the kinds of dances I have always considered to be beyond me--the kind where you let go of the people on each side of you and turn around in little circles as you move and then catch hold again. And I did them okay.

Sunday: UCSC had a parade down Pacific Avenue and Zluta and I walked almost to the end of the street to watch it. She was wonderful, by the way: she likes parades, and she doesn't bark her fool head off at the floats and the funny people and the weird noises. I'd say probably 1-3/4 miles.

Today: almost two miles at sunrise because we ran into Bev from across the street who was going to walk out to the end of the pier and back. Dogs aren't allowed on the pier. so we turned back this side of the scary roundabout intersection at the pier. So just shy of two miles, because it's a mile one way to the opening of the pier? (and the pier is half a mile long, so that would be a three mile walk if Zluta were allowed).

At physical therapy it only took a couple of turns rocking back and forth to get all the way over, and then I was pedalling pretty fast for a bit over ten minutes. This means that I consider myself ready to ride my actual bike around town now.

And then my PT discharged me three weeks early...

My stats are only okay: 118 degrees flexion and 5 degrees extension on the right leg, 120 flexion and 1 degree extension on the left leg. But they are definitely okay!

I get my carpal tunnel release on the 9th, which is 11 days from now. And then I will be done with surgery!!!

I still haven't challenged myself on downhill walking, because it gives me the creeps. But I'm beginning to go down stairs the normal way instead of one step at a time, when I feel like it. It's currently much slower than one step at a time, because I have to convince my knees that they can too handle it.

Also I am less tired, sleeping fewer and shorter daytime naps and I have the focus to write nearly a thousand words a day and also to do a bit of yardwork and housework. As Frank and Hana are coming in three weeks, I am trying to clean up a bit so they don't go home worried that Ma can't handle herself...

She must be a skater because she lives to shred

Finally, the Žluta catch-up post.

She's nine months old and about nineteen pounds now. That's more growth than it sounds like--three pounds in two months-- because formerly she could have slipped through the slats on the front gate and now she can barely get her head through to look around. Otherwise she looks the same as she ever did. Her behavior--oh my. In some ways she is more civilized, because she's learning what behaviors work for her and which ones don't, but in other ways she is wilder because she is a full-on adolescent now.

Our day still starts with her lurching awake and wiggling up to the head of the bed where she wiggles all over my face while I struggle to waken and rise so I can stumble into my clothes and take her for a twilight walk. This can happen anywhere from five-thirty to seven. If it happens closer to five-thirty I walk her around the block and fall back into bed for an hour or so. If it happens closer to seven I might take her for a mile-long walk around the soccer field, or like today, farther, as we went almost all the way to the wharf. I need to walk her at least three times a day, not counting supervised visits to the back yard. These have to be supervised because she has developed a mania for provoking the killer dog next door by leaping up to the the top of the (six-foot) fence and barking outrageously, so that he will throw his huge bulldog body at the fence and make the whole thing shake dangerously.

The vet, our wonderful Dr. Hoban, suggested spraying her with the garden hose to break up this kind of activity, and it worked briefly, but some to find out Žluta adores water in any form, the harsher the better, and she has just incorporated running from the hose into the "game" of provoking Hutch. So I gave it up, thinking that this had turned into a reward. So now I stalk her and catch her and carry her back into the house as soon as I can, without much discussion besides some disapproving noises. I have blocked the tiny area between the compost heap frame and the fence, and I may fence off the whole quadrant of the yard, because Hutch o nly slams into the fence when he can tell she's just on the other side.

I am not joking about Hutch being a killer dog. He has an immense prey drive and nearly demolished the owner's cat, and has attacked small dogs walking down the street on multpile occasions (the owner has been getting better about keeping the dog from getting out). There is no hope that the dog will be corrected--I have no idea how easy it is to moderate a prey drive like that under normal circumstances, but the owner is using an especially incompetent version of that terrible "dog whisperer" Alpha Dog crap and it's just baffling to the dog.

But! This is not an update on Hutch, it is an update on Žluta!

Aside from her provacateur project in the back yard, she gets along with dogs beautifully. Even dogs who I'm told do not like puppies and never play succumb to her canine charms. At the dog park she's very energetic-the day before yesterday we stayed for almost two hours for reasons and she probably had ten m inutes of aggregate downtime. Her favorite dogs are other little monsters like herself but she really enjoys running circles around big dogs too.

I have predictably gotten lazier about training and will therefore call a trainer soon for some inspiring lessons and also advice for this barking at Huitch crap and a couple other bad habits. She learns fast, but that means she also learns things you'd rather she didn't--like she's learned all the places she can sneak into and carry off things I don't want her to have.

She loves shredding things but she will actually eat what she shreds so when I let her have a thing to shred I have to rescue it from her quickly so she doesn't make herself sick. Also many of the things that are specifically designed for puppies to shred she will get sick from. It's an ongoing project and I am willing to entertain suggestions.

It's a project to get her to eat kibble. Usually I get her to eat it by offering it as a training treat (she won't always accept it in this spirit), or otherwise hand-feeding it to her one or two pieces at a time, or tossing it around piece by piece.

It's getting dark: pretty soon we'll go for another walk.